Full text of "Scripophily (April 2009)"

See other formats

^PRIl 2009

i yy rw> i <i>) S3SW3ZE&.

mi mh:i»cii i umi; > Lilllilt'tl.

/////////

SPECIMEN

Inside: Collecting Specimens, Italian Wineries, Ottoman Railroads and more

LONDON

tel:+44 (0)20 7563 4000

69 Southampton Kim

lUlH tillslmi U)ImIoI|\V( nun

www.s pink.com
NEW YORK

tel: ♦ I 212 262 8400
toll free 800 (.22 1880
145 W. S-th Street. 18th Fluor
Ntrw York, N**fv York I(M)19

vvw'w.spin tsrnythc.com

hether you are collecting, buying, or selling, names you have long known are now teamed up to bring
you all the benefits of the global marketplace. Let experts with a collective 100-plus years of expertise
help you build your collection. Let a firm which holds the worlds record auction price for a security sell
your holdings. Let the builders of the worlds premier scripophily library, with reference files on over a million global
securities issues offer their unparalleled service and a century’s worth of securities research to you. Let a global client
list and offices on three continents work for you.

To inquire about consigning your collection to auction or exploring
private sale, to order catalogues for upcoming or previous auctions,
to learn about our current scripophily inventory, or order publications,
please contact Mike Veissid (U.K. mveissid@spink.com), Caleb
Esterline (U.S. cesterline@spinksmythe.com), or John Herzog (U.S.
jherzog@spinksmythe.com).

ONDS & SHARE

SPINK

C/uHhse i/ie A lar/Cei Leaders

The historically important collection of Russian
Treasury hills issued by Barings during World
War I. Sold at auction on September 18th, 2008.

REALISED £253,100 (including premium)

... encouraging collecting since 1978 ^

Have you moved, changed your phone or email, or
modified your collecting interests? If so, please
review your details in 2008 Directory of Members
and Supplements and advise the Membership
Secretary of any changes: Philip Atkinson, 167
Barnett Wood Lane, Ashtead, Surrey, KT21 2LP,
UK. Email: secretary@scripophily.org

APRIL 2009 • YEAR 32 • ISSUE 1

Society Matters

News and Reviews

• IBSS Breakfasts

• Brazilian Bonds

• Book Review

• Russian Record

• British Record

.... and more besides

The Traveler
Showcase

The journal of the

INTERNATIONAL BOND & SHARE SOCIETY

Cox’s Corner
Features

Editorial Board:

Max Hensley Chief Editor
Bruce Castlo
Terry Cox
Fred Fuld III
Salvatore Mariniello
Brian Mills
Andreas Reineke
Arthur Steppe
Addresses on page 2

Advertising rates

One-sixth page: £30

Larger sizes: pro rata
Cover pages!

Artwork J p r j ces Q n application

Opinions expressed by the editors and
by contributors are not necessarily those
of the Society.

The Society does not accept responsibility
for the contents of advertisements.

ISSN 1462-8074

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Stock Certificate
by Mark D Tomasko

It’s Not The Titanic!
by Andreas Reineke

The Building of the Ottoman Railways
by Mario Boone

Collecting Specimens of North American Printers
by Max D Hensley

Italian Wine Certificates
by Alex Witula

Auction Markets
Auction Reviews

Events Calendar

0 Q Q 0 ^

IBSS COMMITTEE

CHAIRMAN

Mario Boone, Kouter 126, B-9800 Deinze, Belgium.

Tel: (+32) 9 386 90 91 Fax: (+32) 9 386 97 66

Email: chairman@scripophily.org

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN - Andreas Reineke
Alemannenweg 10, D-63128 Dietzenbach, Germany.

T/F: (+49) 6074 33747 Email: depchair@scripophily.org

SECRETARY & MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY

Philip Atkinson, 167 Barnett Wood Lane, Ashtead, Surrey,
KT21 2LP, UK Tel: (+44) 1372 276787

Email: secretary@scripophily.org

TREASURER - Martyn Probyn, Flat 2, 19 Nevern Square,
London, SW5 9PD, UK Tel/Fax: (+44) 20 7373 3556
Email: treasurer@scripophily.org

AUCTIONEER - Bruce Castlo, 1 Little Pipers Close,
Goffs Oak, Herts EN7 5LH, UK Tel: (+44) 1707 875659
Email: auctions@scripophily.org

MARKETING

Tom Montgomery, Frommannstrasse 20, D-90419 Nurnberg,
Germany. Email: tom_montgomery@yahoo.com

IBSS BREAKFAST GOES DOWN WELL

T he Annual US Chapter IBSS breakfast was held Saturday morning January 31, 2009, in
conjunction with the Northern Virginia Stock and Bond Show. The keynote speaker was Jorg
Benecke, who provided thought-provoking comments on the economic crisis and scripophily in
Europe. His stimulating talk left my table debating economics until long after the pancakes had gotten
cold, starting with the social utility of cranberry juice futures (none, according to Jorg). The Society
thanks Jorg for his contribution. The number of attendees was about the same as last year (50).

You may have heard that the German Reichsbank hoard contained some US material. Jorg
informed us to our disappointment that it amounts to only about 1 banker box, mostly 1920s and
30s commodity items with only a few unusual certificates. The paucity of material was thought to
have resulted from the US confiscation of German assets during World War I (thereby making
certificates held in Germany before WWI worthless afterwards) and the capital starvation in
Germany during the Weimar Republic and Great Depression. Anyway the German bureaucracy is
fully mobilized to debate the fate of this box and should produce a very deliberate decision many
years in the future.

Gary Eubanks brought some copies of his book on Georgia Railroad Paper and offered signed
copies to attendees at a special members-only price.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES - Peter Duppa-Miller, Beechcroft,
Combe Hay, Bath, BA2 7EG, UK. Tel: (+44) 1225 837271
Fax: (+44) 1225 840583 Email: media@scripophily.org

WEBMASTER

Piotr Bykowski, Klaudyny 14/121, 01-684 Warszawa,
Poland. Tel: (+48) 22 833 7785

Fax: (+48) 22 622 6692 Email: website@scripophily.org

USA CHAPTER - PRESIDENT & TREASURER

Max D Hensley, 116 Parklane Drive, San Antonio,

TX 78212, USA Tel: (+1) 650 773 4125

Email: scripophilyeditor@scripophily.org

USA CHAPTER - VICE PRESIDENT

Scott J Winslow, PO Box 10240, Bedford, NH 03110-0240,
USA Tel: (+1) 603 472 7040

Fax: (+1) 603 641 8292 Email: scott@scripophily.org

EDITORIAL BOARD

Max Hensley - contact details above

Bruce Castlo - contact details above.

Terry Cox, 9989 W 60th Ave Ste #250, Arvada, CO 80004
USA Email: tcox@coxrail.com

Fred Fuld III, 5100 Clayton Road, Bldg B-1 #405, Concord,
CA 94521, USA Tel: (+1) 925 914 9148

Fax: (+1) 925 524 9383 Email: fred@scripophily.org

Salvatore Mariniello, PO Box 2101, CH-8401 Winterthur,
Switzerland Tel: (+41) 1 220 1732

Email: arteprintas@freesurf.ch

Brian Mills, PO Box 9, Tadworth, Surrey, KT20 7JU, UK.
Tel: (+44) 1737 842833 Email: brian@scripophily.org

Andreas Reineke - contact details above

Arthur Steppe, Leemsesteenweg 173, B-9800 Deinze,
Belgium Tel/Fax: (+32) 93 86 77 64

Email: arthur@scripophily.org

The annual free lottery for the $100 prize was delayed briefly while we attempted to emulate the
(perhaps mythical) practice of the Mexican State lottery in using a virgin to pull the winning entry,
but failed to identify anyone suitable for the task. The process, despite its flaws, produced a winner
in Sam Withers. Sam later graciously donated his winnings back to the IBSS general fund.

Mario Boone, outgoing Chairman of the IBSS, noted that elections for Chairman are in March and
that Andreas Reineke had been nominated. He invited anyone else interested in the post to submit
nominations. Mario has spearheaded the IBSS revival over the last few years. He deserves a hearty
round of congratulations for this great effort.

Max Hensley, Chief Editor, invited members to share their interests by contributing articles or
news items to Scripophily , singling out Bob Greenawalt for his many contributions to Scripophily
over the years. He also mentioned the large number of offers Dave Beach got to buy his United
States Guano Co certificate featured in the last issue’s Collector's Showcase , suggesting that
advertisers should take advantage of the magazine’s inexpensive rates to offer specific high-end
items for sale.

The breakfast was free to
members and at-cost to guests or
visitors. Quite a few people took
the opportunity to renew their
membership or join - one year of
membership cost only $8 more
than the breakfast!

From left to right:

Andreas Reineke, Matthias Schmitt,
Volker Malik, Manuela Benecke,
Jorg Benecke, Mario Boone

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

At the Boone reception

In foreground, left to right - Gerard Lemarchand, Regis Jorand
and Mme Lemarchand

In foreground, left to right - Reinhild Tschope, Rudiger Weng
and Udo Hielscher

HANSOOACHIM WEBER

We consider it our sad duty to report the death of Hans-
Joachim Weber (62).

After a four-week hospital stay he passed away in the early
morning of March 24th 2009.

Weber, a professional scripophily dealer since 1977, was a
well-regarded visitor at all auctions and collector shows
throughout Europe. We offer our condolences to his wife,
family and friends.

WEEKEND OF SCRIPOPHILY IN ANTWERP

T his three-day event, March 20-22, now an annual fixture, centred this time on the
25th Jubilee of Centrum voor Scriptophilie, founded in 1984 by the well known
and respected Erik Boone who sadly died 10 years ago, passing his business to his
son. Mario Boone presented this year’s event as a Silver Jubilee celebration for the
business, and as a memorial to his father he included a charity auction for cancer
research. The weekend attracted collectors and dealers from all over Europe. Sadly
only one American scripophilist visited Antwerp this time. The others missed a lot.

Auction Part I started the first day, and included Russia, always a highlight
nowadays, followed by a Silver Jubilee Reception. The subsequent charity auction
for the benefit of cancer research consisted of 100 lots at €25 start price, all the
auction house’s own material. Start prices for those 100 shares (donated by the firm)
were all set at €25, reflecting the firm’s 25 years of existence rather than the actual
value of the pieces, the best of which sold for €650. The bidding was enthusiastic and
at times humorous. For one lot, bids began at €77 (the bidder’s card number!). All
100 lots were sold, yielding €8,625 with commissions all of which was donated to
the Flemish charity Fight against Cancer. A sociable dinner in the auction hotel ended
the day.

Saturday, day two, saw auction Part II with 675 lots in the morning and a 500-lot
“Best of the Best” auction in the afternoon. Fitting the occasion, the auction total set
a world record - see our report in the Auction Reviews section. In the evening a
busload of scripophilists was taken by the host into the mediaeval centre of Antwerp
for a delicious dinner. Rumour has it the bar visit afterwards in the hotel ended at 3
in the morning.

Sunday started with the IBSS European Breakfast at the hotel with 50 seats taken.
Mario Boone, coming to the end of his term as IBSS Chairman, welcomed the
members and friends and introduced the authors of three new books on scripophily.
Alex Witula, well known dealer and auctioneer from Bologna, Italy, introduced his
December 2008 edition of Italian State Loans and talked about his series of reference
books on Italian provinces, three of which have been published so far. Alois Weil,
living in Bavaria now, but originally from Arad, Romania, introduced his new book
on Arad's EconomicHistory exemplified by scripophily. Just as new was the book by
Arthur Steppe, a keen Belgian collector - a reference catalogue on Belgian
Navigation Certificates . The Scripo Club de France held a luncheon meeting for
existing and prospective members.

The collectors’ show on Sunday - styled by the organiser Europe’s biggest
scripophily bourse - lived up to its name. Dealers and collectors, local as well as
from all over Europe, filled the room. 38 dealers and ‘dealing collectors’ from 10
countries took tables, with visitors from those regions plus 5 more countries in
Europe and America. Many stocks and bonds found new owners, bringing satisfied
faces all around - dealers, collectors and the organiser.

Altogether a fantastic weekend for scripophily, marked by the warm welcome and
hospitality of Mario Boone and his family, as well as much new material on offer,
two society gatherings and a large and very successful auction.

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1 ^

REPORT FROM THE 8th ANNUAL NORTHERN VIRGINIA STOCK AND BOND SHOW

T he overall show results: Scripophily lives ! Judging from the activity at this Show, held at the Crown
Plaza Hotel near Dulles Airport, the financial troubles have not yet hit the scripophily world. The
number of buyers was similar to last year and they were quite active, falling into two general classes:

Auctioneers and Europeans buying large amounts of material for resale, and specialized US collectors
searching for that “can’t resist” addition to their collections. By all accounts, both buyer groups were
satisfied. If the dealers had any complaints, it was that they bought more than they had intended to. Even
Bob Greenawalt came away with a Western railroad stock he didn’t already have!

It is impossible to describe the enormous amount of material for sale here. While I typically only find 1 to
3 things of interest on eBay every week, after two very full days I bought 63 pieces here - and I still didn’t
have time to get to all 30 dealers, one more than last year.

Despite the limited geography implied by “northern Virginia” the show is really quite international, with
dealers and collectors from Belgium, Germany, UK, Canada, Switzerland and Mexico.

The only complaint I heard was the absence of warnings on holders about fold splits and tears. Tears, unlike stains, file holes and other easily identified
defects, are difficult to see without removing a piece from the holder. Not pointing this out to buyers is counterproductive. Either the buyer is dissatisfied
upon later discovering the tear or, if the tear is discovered during inspection it is difficult to return the certificate to its holder without aggravating the
problem. Splits and tears may not be terribly significant on rare items, but they always have some impact on price.

Younger people were scarce at this show, a fact that stimulated some nervous conversation. Exactly who is going to buy our carefully assembled collections
when we all pass on? Some collectors cling to illusions of immortality, some believe they can take it with them, and others are secretly hopeful that their
skate-boarding son is going to have a hobby epiphany and take up scripophily. The rest of us think we need to do more to interest younger folks in the
hobby. Thoughts included “dog and pony” shows at museums hosting school class visits, public exhibits and teacher lesson plans.

In regards to new blood, one bright spot was new dealer William Harper, by far the youngest dealer at the show. William is a recent MBA school grad
now employed as an analyst with CSX Railroad. He already carries an interesting inventory.

Attendees liked Dulles’ inexpensive table fees and hotel rooms, shorter schedule and convenient access, but the intimate-clubby-retreat atmosphere (and
the wonderful Smythe auctions) of the old Strasburg, PA, shows are sorely missed. Congratulations to Bob and Judy Schell for a smoothly run event. We
are looking forward to next year’s show, January 29 and 30, 2010, where we can once again indulge in our hobby and raise a glass among new and old
friends. We understand that the hotel and table rates will remain the same next year. Illustrated are a couple of unusual items that sold at the Show.

Max Hensley

George LaBarre and unidentified collector at
Ted Robinson’s table

Highland Mining Co (CA)
signed by Lloyd Tevis,
endorsed on the back by
Tevis as attorney-in-fact for
AB Haggin, famous names in
the development of the great
Homestake Mine in Lead,
S Dakota. Sold to a collector
by Dave Beach for $160.
The Highland ultimately was
absorbed into the Homestake.

$348.25 in tax revenue
stamps are on the back,
making the certificate when
issued worth about
$700,000 in today’s money

iflllu fa &i (Jjrgfe A" A

iff ■■ .-.'/*<&?//r O U V
f/tt / fytfjfo/.

Cl*IW> r - U/Mtrtt

fr .... __

----- ,„. r - 7 - ft ffiWf/rt . rdrAifr/ Mt ■ tttrr/

f* f '/y //. 'bfr fe . fX M-- ftjjrjt!>/ //<?.>

'ih ll iIkijII ftiHil, . '/ir.iiJfit/ tint/. Jffn/ftiy t/.twf r. Tvyixy

nfft/f/ftff iftfmtt jSif t / 7 i/tiy*/ . /■

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

North American Edison Phonograph Co, signed by Jessie
Lippincott. Sold to a collector by Bob Kerstein for $2400.
The story behind this piece can be found on Kerstein’s web
site at www.scripophily.net/noramphoncom.html

TOP BRITISH PRICE EVER

T he highest price ever paid at auction for a British share certificate has
been achieved by a piece from the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

Although issued in 1830, this is of the same type issued at least as early
as 1823. Not the earliest railway shares (certificates of earlier English and
Welsh railways are known), but they are very rare and much wanted
because the S&DR had, and still has, a higher profile than any other
historic railway.

Built by George Stephenson, “father of the railways”, and popularly
thought to be the “world’s first railway”, the S&DR was the culmination
of more than 300 years of industrial railway development, primarily in
the mines of first Germany and then England. It was the important
transitional step between industrial railways (or tramroads) and modern
railways of which the first was the Liverpool & Manchester Railway,
also George Stephenson’s, opened in 1830.

The S&DR was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1821 as a horse-drawn industrial tramroad but by a further Act in 1823 it was permitted to carry
passengers and became the first public railway to be authorised to use locomotives. Stephenson had a flair for public relations and he organised a grand
opening day on 27th September 1825 when a long train of 30 or more goods wagons, some with temporary seating for passengers, was hauled by his
Locomotion No 1 driven by Stephenson himself. It is the flag-waving, band-playing image of this day that has stayed in the public mind. In 1826 a
scheduled passenger service was introduced (the world’s first) but this was horse-drawn until 1833.

Only five of the S&DR first-issue certificates have previously been seen on the scripophily market, and some were heavily cancelled or cut. The buyer
this time at the Boone auction was Wertpapierwelt, the Swiss scripophily museum, and the price including premium £30,600, far above previous auction
prices for the piece. The top price for a British share certificate until now was £22,000 for a 1777 share in Abraham Darby’s Iron Bridge. In fact two of
the Iron Bridge shares were sold in 2007 at this price, one by Boone and one by Tschope. The pound collapsed between 2007 and 2009 and so in terms
of the US dollar and the euro, the three pieces were within 5% or 6% of each other - indeed the Tschope Iron Bridge beat the Stockton & Darlington by
$400. An interesting question - in which currency should records be set?

od’;toir^j3u tft i;fyo iVjJ vfiiUtmjj

^ JimvqMTJU. houii-V \t jmnn

V//.y/ s/u A /v z/yy // ~

. 1 0 ,f/A, 1f*tiid;Uiii .Hid Diidutflttw y UiiUjiiiit; /. /A A//-

tut//Z „/,*,y/l mt/VZtf/yttttty s/h Z/Z/tr/A

Z !,,<////> * /*//*!//:/ t'T • /urnr/rf v ft////

* > / • ///*//</<* > "/*//**/A /A Ay*/ ✓/////- y afr. A

S///Y// //,"// // A . /„/ y //„ J£^A,jpy,,,,y

4/, J,*yt P

m !»•*• '4MO' I wit*

CHIEF EDITOR NABBED FOR RECEIVING STOLEN GOODS

Y es, it’s true. In December 2008 your Editor bought on US eBay a proof bond of the Birmingham Furnace and Machinery Co. Three weeks later I
received an email from the true owner: Bob Whitten wrote to explain that he kept this bond and about a dozen other Alabama-related securities in a
desk drawer in his office. A trusted employee had stolen the collection, selling some to an intermediary who then sold them on eBay and traded others for
clothes and jewelry. Most have now been recovered. The unrecovered eBay items and serial number-traceable certificates are listed below. The complete
list is on the IBSS website. Bob can be contacted at 118 E. Mobile St. Suite 209, Florence, AL USA 35630, (256)-787-6338, rwhitten@hiwaay.net.

Northern Alabama Railway Co 1895 $1,000 Bond Specimen
Ensley Southern Railroad Co
Florence Cotton & Iron stock #2097
Florence Wagon Company stocks #1045

One would expect that vintage securities would be unappealing to thieves given their limited market and easy traceability through serial numbers.
However, the certificates look impressive and would attract crimes of opportunity. For example, six years ago 150 certificates from my collection
disappeared after tradesmen were in my home while it was being preparing for sale. Bob Schell had a full box of specimens go missing two years ago
during his move to northern Wisconsin. Obviously, a complete inventory of your collection will be important in aiding recovery, but it would be better if
they were never stolen to begin with. I moved my collection to a bank vault. Max Hensley

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1 r

BRAZILIAN STERLING BOND
BRINGS BIG PRICE ON EBAY

P age 7 of the last issue of Scripophily reported on high
prices realized by Brazilian foreign currency bonds. A
similar bond to the one imaged in that article (with Dutch
revenue stamp instead) recently sold on eBay’s US site for
$2,025 on 11 bids by 4 bidders. It is difficult to make much
of the bidders because of eBay’s now pervasive use of bidder
aliases. However, bidding histories suggest they were recent
eBay arrivals or have not been particularly active - the
winning bidder had 217 prior eBay transactions, the
underbidder only 57. The winner’s bidding history suggested
a US collector with an interest in scripophily and South
American stamps.

The sum realized is not bad for a £20 Sterling bond, worth
perhaps $100 at issue. It represents close to a return of
principal if we take into account the persistent dollar
debasement that has occurred since the bond was issued.
Rumors are that these bonds are being used in tax litigation
strategies against the Brazilian government, but for now we
can only look and marvel.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Editor:

Bravo to Terry Cox for his insightful and forthright analysis
of the issue of pricing in our hobby (‘Cox’s Corner #4’,
Scripophily December 2008 page 12). I’ve been collecting
for twelve years, and am still baffled and amazed by some of
the prices assigned to old stocks and bonds. I realize dealers
need to make a profit, and collectors want to make as much
as they can from their collections. I accept that autographs,
colorful and unusual designs and vignettes, and popular
subjects (such as railroads and mining in the US) will carry
premium values. It’s much harder to understand high prices
on items that may be rare, but have minimal buyer interest.

Terry doesn’t mention it, but I suspect that many in our
hobby assume that with physical issuance of new marketable
certificates expected to end soon, all existing collectible
certificates will increase in value. That may happen, but this
collector will continue to emphasize eBay, where, as Terry
observes, bids and prices are lower. I’m also fully prepared
to forgo a desired certificate, or if necessary, leave the hobby
altogether, rather than pay absurdly inflated prices that are
based on supply but ignore demand.

Craig Scott, USA

SCRIPOPHILY

A 2009/1

BOOK REVIEW

R M Smythe, Obsolete American Securities and Corporations
2nd Edition 1911

Download from Google Books at

http: //books. goo gle .com/books ?id=S odC A A A AIA A J

We might be criticized for procrastinating about this review until a century after
publication, but then Google Books just recently made it available on-line.

The download may or may not be available in your country, depending upon the legal
situation, but it is available in the US. Copy and paste the above link into your
browser’s address box, hit “enter” on your keyboard, look for the book cover on left,
and if you want to download it, click on the “download PDF” button. You will need
a reasonable internet connection....this download is not for dial-up.

The bulk of the book is devoted to a 1,000 page list of every defunct US company
known to Roland M Smythe at the publication date. These companies issued shares,
but few of them are known to scripophily. For example, there’s the Wallis-Fispenard
Cotton Picker and Machinery Company dissolved in 1898 (p 1058), today known
only from a few specimens. Some defunct companies were shut down by the Post
Office, indicating a fraud.

Smythe’s ascerbic wit is a delight. For example: “Mining stocks...are the greatest
‘performance swindle’ in the world....the only thing to be gained by a purchaser of
mining stocks is the added interest and excitement in life from holding few dollars’
worth of something which may be worth millions in your imagination, if you are
careful not to make too many inquiries about it. You cannot make money out of these
stocks; but you may make experience on a very small outlay, which will save you
heavier losses later in life. As far as I can judge, however....a very large majority of
mortals do not learn by experience or by anything else, and those that do generally
succeed, and die rich and miserable.” (page vi).

Smythe covers failed and repudiated bonds (pp 15-16), including this report on the
Peoria, Pekin and Jacksonville Railroad First Mortgage bonds: “There is no money to
pay it and claims would have to be based on the court where foreclosure took place...
I also heard the courthouse burned down, so what is the use in trying to recover?” He
also mentions the Poyais bonds, referring to the issuer as a “regal curiosity.”

Smythe covers various outright frauds, including “raised” certificates where a
certificate for one share was changed to 100 or 500, and an oil “multiplication” racket
where 4 companies drill a single well at the corner where they all join, and if oil is
struck voila! one has 4 successful companies. Where is Smythe now that we have the
SEC?

The book concludes (p 1109 et seq) with another useful feature, the “merged list.”
Here, Smythe lists the “old company” and adjacent to it the succeeding or controlling
company.

Thanks to Google Books for making this curiosity available to the general public.

THE TRAVELER

Fd like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love,

Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves.

Fd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,

Fd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.

Somebody save me! This infernal 1969 ditty is still ricocheting around
inside my head a week after visiting “The World of Coke”. Purists will
look down on the Coca-Cola Company’s museum in Atlanta, Georgia,
but we scripophilists are a forgiving lot. We’ll tolerate screaming kids, a
“4-D” theater with bouncing seats and way too much fun just to get our
history fix. And you’ll get a lot here, despite the World of Coca-Cola’s
website (www.worldofcoca-cola.com) overlooking its excellent exhibits
on Coke’s history. If you ever wondered how to turn fizzy sugar water into
a multi-billion dollar worldwide business, you’ll get the answers here.

The Museum emphasizes Coke’s worldwide marketing innovations,
including the famous ad campaigns (my fiance loves the polar bear series).
Did you know that the famous bottle shape was the result of a
misunderstanding? The Company wanted a bottle evocative of coca leaves
(in the early days, Coke apparently did contain a “certain extract” from
coca leaves). The designer misunderstood that to mean “cocoa” and
modeled the upper portion of the bottle on a chocolate bean seed pod. I got
a kick out of the “free samples” room, with about 60 world-wide varieties
of Coke soft drinks on tap. My favorite was a spicy ginger-flavored
Tanzanian drink “Stoney Tangawizi”.

Gary Eubanks (left) and Billy Schroer admire a stock certificate

Last but not least, the museum contains an original stock certificate of the
Pemberton Chemical Company of Atlanta, the closely-held predecessor
to the Coca-Cola Company that first developed druggist and founder John
Pemberton’s products. Oddly, none of the guides for Coke memorabilia
collectors in the museum gift shop mention stock certificates.

Explore the past with Coke, or you can find a guide in your fellow
collectors. When you’re away from home, why not go to your IBSS
Directory and contact a local member for a visit? The last issue of
Scripophily reviewed Georgia Railroad Paper by Gary Eubanks. The
Traveler took the opportunity to pay him a visit in Marietta, Georgia, about
30 miles north of Atlanta.

Gary is an attorney in his second career as commercial property manager.
He got his start in scripophily after receiving a gift of a framed certificate
10 years ago, and has since specialized in Georgia rails before about 1900.
He estimates that about 137 railroads operated in Georgia in that period,
and has obtained certificates, bonds and paper scrip for about half of them.
He observes that his acquisitions are fewer now, but the thrill is greater for
each find. I asked him what motivated him to write his book. He replied,
“Some day my collection is going to be dispersed. None of my kids is
interested. I thought it was a good idea to ensure there’s a record of all the
work I’ve done in assembling and studying it”. Gary continues to share in
other ways, giving lectures on scripophily at the local library and to civic
groups. His knowledge of Georgia railroads is encyclopedic.

Gary and the Traveler were treated to lunch by another local collector,
Billy Schroer. He met Gary at a Rotary Club meeting where they stumbled
onto their common interest. They now actively collaborate and share their
collecting pursuits. Billy and Gary kindly offered items for Collectors
Showcase, shown on the next pages. The Traveler is grateful to both for
sharing their collections.

An 1886 share of the
Pemberton Chemical
Co of Atlanta Georgia,
the company first
founded by John
Pemberton to
commercialize his
Coca-cola product

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/l q

SHOWCASE

GEORGIA RAILROAD & BANKING CO Gary Eubanks

This 1839 certificate of the Georgia Railroad & Banking Co (Georgia RR) is my favorite for five reasons:

(1) Early Issue. This was Georgia’s first railroad. I have seen only one other certificate issued by a Georgia railroad before 1839.

(2) Athens issue. The Georgia RR was first organized by residents of Athens, GA. After 1840 it was controlled by a group of Augusta, GA, businessmen,
so very few certificates were issued in Athens. The original Athens directors hired talented 26-year-old J Edgar Thomson to build the railroad. At the time,
the railroad terminated in “Marthasville.” Thomson changed the name to “Atlanta!”

(3) Signatures. This rare certificate was signed by the both first and second presidents of the railroad, respectively James Camak and William Dearing.
Both men were extremely prominent Georgians outside their involvement with the Railroad.

(4) Surprise. I acquired this certificate in an auction group lot where another certificate was the main reason for my bid. Only after I actually received
the lot did I realize that this certificate was much rarer than the one which had initially caught my interest.

(5) Attractive Design. If a certificate is to qualify as your favorite, it has to be a pleasure to view. I am attracted to the detailed graphics, including a
vignette of one of the first passenger trains complete with both passengers and luggage on the roof.

tu rri vrtjr

& BA2v **2Vg

r/Z (Z stZyC&T, S S// Z/Z/^s/Z

. Z//s//'sJ /// ZZ/ ' ZZrZ<sZ Z//s

IlfHA MAW Ji Il&OADA IkVNklXfi COMPANY
z,ZZ / ■////// ;/ /Z/ _ Zj/'/'Zj/y ZZ/ .;s///ZZ<■ //y/s///// ///
ZZZ/////// <Z/Z// ///''ZZ/zz^/sZs

v/j/y/

ittics*;' * Z/y.f//T/x

ATHENS

//a c ZZrt'st

Z'Af-vyy SsA,

f/ / / oy . ,

>y ■ y-y/ y : ,//

'. yy / i v

{’ASIIIK K

,|M |a r -lifin- irn n

: V# i i i ijiij i Qm i

I i J 1 Mi

y _

T-

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

ATLANTA

Lsffc mvnerof

Ihjs C ertifies to T

627750

JOHN V, 5 CHK 0 ER

FULLY PAJtJ AND NON-ASSESSABLE SHARES

ATLANTA BRAVES, INC. t /mmfim*

//r-/: my/', y/ti) ,//

wfj/w/j t/'/Z/f 1 s/lhfff'r/wM/fmt ///ft/ $// /fwj /y //tf

vA4$ Mt /?& rY f/// //U^J Y/M)/f/ J ‘frfymf}. /&
'/Zifa rerfr/tw/f tJ w>ftw/f>/

iy^/- /fw///ftjjpwrffM j> o//mrak

. .

0«/r</

^(iipiiii"'

ATLANTA BRAVES PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL TEAM Billy Schroer

For most certificate collectors, there’s a special certificate that framed their interest in the hobby. For me it is an Atlanta Braves certificate for one share.
If the story had not unfolded as it did, I might not have my other thousand or so certificates!

First, here’s some ownership history on the Braves, the oldest franchise in baseball: In Boston from 1871-1952 (known as the Red Stockings, Beaneaters,
Doves, Rustlers, Pilgrims, Braves, Bees, and then Braves again); in Milwaukee from 1953-1965; and in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1966-Present. Lou Perini,
the construction magnate, owned the Boston Braves through his company, Perini Corporation, and moved the club to Milwaukee in 1953. This was the
first baseball franchise shift since 1903. In 1962, Perini sold the Milwaukee Braves to a group of six former stockholders of the White Sox, which included
John McHale and Bill Bartholomy. In 1966, the new owners moved the franchise to Atlanta. The McHale/Bartholomy group owned 95.5% of the stock
and Perini retained 4.5% (31,000 shares). There were virtually no shares in hands outside of these owners. Braves stock never surfaced in the public market.

Fresh out of graduate school in January, 1970,1 became a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch. In March, a client came in wanting to sell 12 shares of the Atlanta
Braves. It was not hard to find 12 brokers to buy one share each at $17 per share. This was the first stock I had ever bought, registered in my name, and
taken delivery of ... and what a great certificate it is. Colorful, great vignettes of the Braves team logo and a baseball, very collectible, rarely seen issued,
issued to me personally, sports piece, Georgia piece, and had a connection to my career. This piece is the reason I am in the hobby. My collection now
includes other Braves ownership certificates.. .the Boston Baseball Association, the Milwaukee Braves, Turner Broadcasting, AOL Time Warner, and
the current owner of the Braves, Liberty Media Group. In 1974 the Braves offered the few minority shareholders $24.19 per share for their stock. I did
not accept the offer and kept the stock. In 1976, the Braves were sold by Bartholomy to Ted Turner (Turner Broadcasting).

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/l Q

COX’S CORNER #5

C ancellation is a method of preventing
documents being used more than once for
their original intended purposes. Documents
can range from movie tickets to checks to
paper money to securities. There are two main
categories of cancellation representing either
the addition of something to documents or
disrupting paper surfaces.

Additive types of cancellation include hand¬
writing, rubber stamp impressions, typewritten
or printed notices. Disruptive types of cancellations can range from tearing
documents in half (movie tickets, for instance) to punching holes, impressing
designs, impaling on spikes or cutting them in some manner. Regardless of
methods, cancellations are meant to make documents non-negotiable.

Because stocks and bonds represented large sums of money, cancellation has
always been very important to companies. The oldest and most obvious way of
cancelling certificates was to write “cancelled” across the bodies of
certificates. Pen cancellation (including crayons and china markers) has been
around since the very first certificates. As long as the number of certificates
cancelled each day was limited, there was no need for more elaborate methods.

Companies moved to time-saving methods of cancellation once they grew to
the point where they needed to transfer more than a handful of certificates each
week. Mechanical punch cancellations started appearing in the 1840s, but
gained popularity among larger companies by the mid-1850s. Punch cancel¬
lations generally consisted of series of single holes punched by hand devices
similar to those used to cancel train tickets. Cancellations were generally
circular holes, 2mm to 5mm diameter, punched through signatures. Hole
shapes and sizes became more diverse by the 1870s. Punches in the shapes of
single letters were popular among some companies by the end of the 1900s.

Cancellation using rubber stamps was another obvious time-saving approach.
The earliest rubber stamp cancellations on stock certificates appeared in the
early 1850s, within only six or seven years of Charles Goodyear’s rubber
vulcanization patent.

“Pinhole” cancellations are elaborate variations of hand punches and seem to
have appeared in the early 1870s. These cancellations consisted of series of
tiny holes organized into words, dates and abbreviations. Rotary punch devices
also appeared in the 1870s and removed lines of circular punch holes in one
smooth, efficient motion. “Machine-gun” cancellations like this were unpopular
on stock certificates, but were used quite frequently for bonds.

Like bank checks, a small number of stock certificates were cancelled by
impaling them on spindles or by cutting them with series of triangular, X-

shaped or concentric knives. Cut and spindle cancellations are almost
impossible to research because they leave little evidence in photos and scans.
Huge numbers of Chicago Burlington & Quincy certificates were cut with
three V-shaped knives, but essentially none of the damage shows up in photos.

For some reason, a few companies took more destructive approaches and
removed large pieces of paper, either from the bottom edges of certificates or
from the signature areas. Quintessential examples of such cancellations can be
seen among certificates of the Louisville & Northern Railway & Lighting Co.
I have never found any published explanation for such paranoid approaches.

A few months ago, I wondered if there were trends among the various methods
of cancellation, either date-wise or population-wise. The problem with
discovering date trends is that hardly anyone ever reports the dates certificates
were cancelled. There is often no way to tell if investors owned certificates for
days or decades. We can, however, see trends among populations of cancelled
stock certificates. (I plan to research bond cancellations later this year.)

While pen cancellations have been used for about 170 years, hand punch
cancellations affect 58% of all issued and cancelled stock certificates. Rubber
stamp cancellations are the second most popular method (41%) followed by
pen (32%) and pinhole cancellations (17%). Potentially large, but unknown,
numbers of cut and spindle cancellations probably exist, but are undercounted
because they are invisible in photographs.

The most surprising observation I have found so far is the percentage of
certificates cancelled by multiple methods. Counting only issued stock
certificates, 46% of all cancelled shares were cancelled by two or more
methods - usually hand punches combined with rubber stamp impressions.
Almost 9% of all certificates were cancelled by three or more methods. I
suspect multiple cancellation methods represent error checking and accounting
redundancy. As I tallied cancellations, I concluded that the majority of
cancellations can probably be attributed to trust companies. Once trust
companies and clearing houses became involved in transferring certificates, it
appears certificates moved through the hands of more and more clerks, each
applying distinct cancellations and marks. Many certificates show two, three
and sometimes four different punch cancellations, easily identified by distinct
shapes and sizes.

Collectors know the obvious relationships between cancellations and prices.
While there are occasional exceptions, uncancelled certificates are worth the
most. Certificates with typical cancellations are less expensive. Certificates
with large cutout cancellations are the cheapest. Beyond that, however, there
are no predictable penalties or premiums for methods of cancellation or
degrees of cancellation. Individual collectors have definite preferences, but
considered as a whole, lightly cancelled certificates tend to sell for
approximately the same as heavily cancelled examples

Terry Cox tcox@coxrail.com is the author and publisher of the price guide ‘Collectible Stocks and Bonds from North American Railroads’ and of the
regular ‘Update’ newsletter. His database contains 17,000 distinct types of railroad certificates plus 5,000 variations, and is growing daily.

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

The Atchison, Topeka anti Santa Fe stock certificate

— iiv Mabk D. Tomasko —

A merican securities are so appealing to many people because of the bank note style steel-plate engraving, and especially the portraits and vignettes.

My interest and specialty is documenting the picture engravers, the vignette artists, the designers, the companies that did this work, and the process
of bank note engraving. I became interested in securities around 1970, after discovering they were the largest format for bank note engraving. In terms of
documenting the people and the process, engraving records really exist only for American Bank Note Co (“ABN”), but we do have some picture engraving
information for some other firms too.

Before moving to the subject of this piece, a quick note on bank note engraving and printing. Intaglio, or engraving, involves cutting lines and dots into
wood or metal (primarily steel for bank note engraving) to create the image. Printing is done by covering the die or plate with ink, then wiping it off, so
that ink remains in the grooves but is entirely gone from the surface. A piece of damp paper is then pressed against the metal plate at very high pressure,
and the ink comes out of the grooves, and when dry, gives that raised feel of intaglio, or engraving.

For bank note engraving, the lines and dots in the metal are made in one of two ways: either with a graver, or by etching. The graver and etching point
are the primary tools of the picture engraver, to make the lines and dots, one by one, in the steel. A graver is used to cut the dots and lines directly into the
steel. Etching involves coating the plate with a transparent ground, and then an etching point is used to make the lines and dots in the ground, exposing
the steel. Acid is then put on the plate, and the acid eats into the steel where the etching point has exposed it. In the Anglo-American bank note engraving
tradition, human fleshwork and drapery (clothing) are cut with a graver, and the remainder is etched—animals, scenery, planes, trains, buildings,
everything else. Portraits (fleshwork and clothing) are mostly cut, and they are the peak of the picture engraver’s art. One caveat on terms: in the art world,
cutting with a graver is known as engraving, while etching is called just that—etching. In the bank note engraving industry, it was all known as engraving,
subdivided into cutting and etching.

With that brief introduction, let’s look at one of the best combination vignettes to appear on a railroad stock certificate. In 1896 American Bank Note Co
produced a beautiful certificate for The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Co, the header for which is illustrated (a “header” is a certificate title
and vignette). It did not have as much unusual design or ornament in the border as some other certificates from the 1890s (particularly those of Homer
Lee Bank Note Co) but it had a spectacular three-part vignette and excellent title.

Figure 1: Header (title and vignettes) for The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Co stock certificate,
1896 -c.1950, one of the best combination vignettes ever done by American Bank Note Co

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1 jj

Let’s examine the vignettes, starting with the one on the left of the header.
It is the “Chicago Limited,” engraved in 1887 by Charles Skinner of ABN.
Skinner had worked for Continental Bank Note before the merger of
American, National, and Continental in 1878. He was a fine engraver, and
after the death of Alfred Jones in 1900, Skinner became the head of ABN’s
picture engraving department. This vignette, engraved (etched) from a
wash drawing by an unknown artist, was very heavily used—it appeared
on some fifty different railroad bonds and stocks in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. And it has a close cousin, “Wagner Palace Car,”
which appears to be a very similar but slightly different version of the
same scene, done for the Wagner Palace Car stock certificate, also by
Charles Skinner in 1887.

Figure 2: Die proof of “Chicago Limited ,” engraved (etched) by Charles Skinner
for American Bank Note in 1887. A very heavily used railroad vignette, this
engraving appeared on some 50 different securities

The centerpiece, the longhorn, is one of my favorite images. The longhorn
started out life in 1875 as “Steer’s Head,” (Fig. 3), etched by E. G. Farmer
and finished by James Smillie. Smillie was one of the best etchers to work
on bank notes in the nineteenth century, while Farmer did not do picture
work for ABN very long. The “Steer’s Head” image was taken from a
painting done in the 1860s by Sir Edwin Landseer (a famous English
painter of animals). By 1886 ABN evidently saw the need to give the
original majestic “Steer’s Head” a horn transplant, to make him into a
Texas longhorn (what would Landseer have thought!). The vignette was

altered by Christian Rost, a very
fine etcher at American Bank
Note, and the new vignette
became “Texas Steer.” This
Texas version was used on a
number of securities and even
Honduran bank notes.

Figure 3: Die proof of “Steer’s
Head,” engraved (etched) by E. G.
Farmer and James Smillie, 1875,
American Bank Note Co, from
artwork by Sir Edwin Landseer,
showing the original form of the
steer before he became a Texan

SCRIPOPHILY

-r<2 2009/1

The third scene, the Indian spearing the buffalo, dates from an earlier era.
To complete the three-part header, ABN reached back to the vignettes of
one of its predecessor companies, Toppan Carpenter & Co, and selected a
vignette whose artwork was done by one of the more noted bank note
vignette artists of the 1850s-1870s, Felix Octavius Carr Darley. According
to Darley’s account book, he did the drawing for this scene (“Indians
Hunting Buffaloes”) in October 1853 for Toppan Carpenter for $60. It
would have been engraved in late 1853 or early 1854. While there are no
surviving engraving records from Toppan Carpenter, there are two sources
that attribute the engraving of this scene to Robert Hinshelwood. One is
George Frederick Cumming (“Fred”) Smillie’s engraving scrapbooks, and
the other is Gene Hessler’s book The Engraver's Line. This vignette
appeared on several obsolete (pre-1865) bank notes in the US, one of
which, the $2 Michigan State Bank note by American Bank Note
Company, is illustrated.

Unfortunately we have no way of knowing who designed the Santa Fe
Railway stock certificate, as ABN kept no separate records of design work.
But it is one of the finest “headers” on any railroad stock certificate. The
Santa Fe Railway was a leading railroad in America, quite tied into
Western U.S. history, and this certificate gives good evidence of that
(cattle, Indians, buffalo, etc.). What did the Santa Fe do after this
certificate? The redesign in 1950 was equally stunning, saving a bit but
changing much, but that is for another time.

DKTHOiT,

" At
A // s/? ///(/////

Figure 4: $2 note on the State Bank of Michigan, c. 1860s, American Bank Note.
The Indian hunting buffalo vignette was engraved for Toppan Carpenter & Co in
the 1850s by Robert Hinshelwood from artwork by F. O. C. Darley. The Santa Fe
certificate kept this vignette in use for 50 years, close to the 100th anniversary of
its engraving

Mark Tomasko mntomasko @ att.net is a collector, writer, and researcher on
bank note engraving and has done more than 30 articles on the subject over
the last decade, as well as exhibits at the Museum of American Finance,
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and elsewhere.

— ANDREAS REINEKE —

There are two well-known and common US shipping certificates showing
steamers on their vignettes.

International Mercantile Marine Co (“IMM”)

Different values and issues starting in 1906

United States Lines, Inc. (“USL”)

Preference Shares, blue at 100 and red at less than 100 shares

INTERNATIONAL MERCANTILE MARINE CO

Vf/A/Ar '-W/ fJtft#/,#&//&■ r/Mu A’/fM*MtfifirmiA

//tf /jfi t nr/jit '///if f tymjriAfW fti/fffjfHf&JsmJ/iff /jtv-t tin/jawA/A Mrs Ari/yi, xA

*? w/ rtw/t&iwtfMtf Sy/ftr. /wt/f ; A/r/t'jj/r*//*/ y /A- /hya/tet

John Pierpont Morgan founded IMM in 1902 as a trust for his shipping
interests. Among others IMM controlled the British White Star Line, the
owner of the Titanic. IMM was never really successful and was dissolved
in the 1940s. Cunard bought the remnants of the White Star Line and the
remaining American companies were amalgamated into the United States
Lines. Each of the certificates for IMM and USL depict steamers.
Sometimes you will see the IMM certificate advertised as the Titanic , but
this only refers to the ownership interest, not the vessel in the vignette.

This article is about these vessels. You’ll be surprised to learn that these
US shipping companies not only did not depict the Titanic, they used
German-built liners for the vignettes on their certificates!

The liner shown on the IMM certificate is the Kronprinzessin Cecilie,
never owned or used by IMM. Sometimes called the Titanic-certificate
because IMM owned the White Star Line in 1912 when the Titanic sank,
it certainly does not display the Titanic. A comparison of the ship in the
vignette with photographs of the Titanic shows that the Titanic only had
two masts, among other distinctions. Plus, the Titanic was launched in
1912, six years after the first IMM certificates with this vignette began
appearing.

The Kronprinzessin Cecilie was named after Duchess Cecilie Auguste
Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who after her marriage to Crown Prince
Wilhelm of Prussia became Crown Princess Cecilie.

The liner was built in 1906 at Vulkan Werft, full name Stettiner
Maschinenbau Actien-Gesellschaft Vulcan, Stettin, (today Szczecin in
Poland) for Norddeutscher Lloyd, NDL. She started her maiden voyage
from Bremerhaven to New York on 6th August 1907. She was the fourth
four-funnel steamer for NDL. All were furnished in heavy and pompous
Wilhelmian style. At 19,502 Gross Register Tons (GRT) the Crown
Princess had the largest piston steam engine that ever propelled a ship.
Lour quadruple expansion engines produced a total of 46,000 hp and a
cruising speed of 23.6 knots. The speed record set by her sister Kaiser
Wilhelm II was soon beaten by the British steamers Mauretania and
Lusitania, but the four liners performed a reliable and effective passenger
service until the outbreak of WWI in 1914.

On 28th July 1914 Kronprinzessin Cecilie departed New York with 1,100
passengers and a cargo of two million Pounds Sterling in gold. Captain

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

Poliak turned around in mid-Atlantic due to gathering war clouds and to
avoid capture by the British Navy. While at sea, the captain had ordered
her funnels repainted as a form of disguise, so as to resemble the White
Star Line’s Olympic. She reached Bar Harbour, Maine, on 4th August 1914
where she was detained by the then neutral United States. Passengers were
returned to New York by train and the gold was taken to Boston. Under
escort the steamer left for Boston on 6th November 1914. After the US
entered the war on 6th April 1917 the vessel was seized. She was armed,
refurbished and commissioned as troopship USS Mount Vernon. For the
following three years she carried troops to France and after the end of the
war returned them to the USA. During her last voyage to France she was
torpedoed by the German U-boat U-82 on 5th September 1918 but was
able to reach Brest, France, at 15 degrees list and only 6 knots headway.
Her career as troopship ended in 1920.

There had been several plans to bring her back into service, but her huge
steam engines created problems. She was top-heavy, always needed
around 2,000 tons of water-ballast and would have needed upgrading to oil
boilers or even diesel engines.

The Mount Vernon was laid up, first in Boston, then from 1924 in the
James River Reserve Fleet on Chesapeake Bay. The vessel decayed more
and more, so that eventually even the British refused to take her. She was
scrapped in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1940.

UNITED STATES LINES

The liner shown on the USL certificate is the Leviathan , owned by USL
from 1923 to 1937. She was built as the Vaterland (‘Fatherland’ in
German) for Hamburg-Amerika-Packet-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG)
at Blohm & Voss Shipyard, Hamburg. Launched 3rd April 1913 she started

SCRIPOPHILY

- r A 2009/1

her maiden voyage to New York on 14th May 1914. At 54,282 GRT she
was the largest passenger liner ever to sail under German colours.
Passenger accommodation and saloons were of effusive luxury and had the
impression of lordliness, and no expense was spared. After all, until the
completion of her sister ship Bismarck in 1922, she was the largest ship in
the world. With her crew of 1,234 she could carry a total of 3,897
passengers, with 980 in First Class, 535 in Second and 850 in Third, plus
1532 in steerage. At full speed she would run more than 25 knots, her
average speed was 23 knots.

On 30th July 1914, a few days before the outbreak of WWI, she reached
New York at the completion of her fourth outward voyage. She was being
made ready for sea on the next day but a telex from Germany stopped
everything. Again, to avoid the British navy the huge Vaterland was
mothballed in Hoboken and rested there for almost three years together
with several other German steamers. When America entered the war in
April 1917 the US Government seized the Vaterland and converted her
into a troopship. The German crew sabotaged the vessel as much as
possible, but the damage was quickly repaired and the total dockyard
period lasted only three months. The vessel also received an armament of
eight 6-inch guns and some smaller weapons, and was rechristened
Leviathan. Leviathan was a sea creature referred to in the Old Testament
(Psalm 74:13-14; Job 41; Isaiah 27:1), but has become synonymous with
any large sea monster or creature.

Under its new name she carried out ten transatlantic voyages in the
following years. With a capacity of 10,000 soldiers she was a bonus for the
US Government, and on a westbound voyage after the end of WWI she set
a record carrying 14,416 passengers. Her last voyage in this service ended
in September 1919 when she brought General Pershing and his staff home
to the US. What followed was a long period during which her faith was to
be tested. Since she still was a coal-burner the boilers needed to be
changed to oil firing. And the living space and public rooms badly needed
reconditioning. The costly rehabilitations started in February 1922 at the
Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company. No effort was
spared and after conversion the liner was introduced as the flagship of the
newly incorporated United States Lines. The Leviathan was once again a

Continued on page 24

THC BUILDING OF TH€ OTTOMAN RAILWAYS - WHCRC CAST MCCTS W£ST

— MARIO BOONC —

Although the expansion of the Ottoman Empire was halted before the gates
of Vienna in 1529, the sultanate was still a major political player on the
world stage in the second half of the 19th century - not least because of
its strategic location, with one foot in Europe and the other in Asia,
bordering Africa d) and controlling most of the shores of the Arabian
Peninsula (the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf).

The Crimean War (1853-1856) ended in financial distress for the Empire
(leading to its very first foreign bond issue), but it also led to Sultan
Abdiilmecid Ps (1839-1861) insight that railways were needed to move
troops and give a boost to the economic development of his still gigantic
but trackless and impoverished empire.

BRITISH CAPITAL

S'?

■ j t'f.,

&**5£**tik£

reiSEs s0, W .

** / OF II]?* LMI42U1.U. JLklEtfTY niK SI'ETAX;. .

; *TTT T-T-T»T

En^Hf r»i At’ IU ‘-^ " l ***' TO>Ba ” 1 VrW^' #

CERTIFICATE 01' CUNULATIVE PREFERENCE SHAKE TO BEARER.

• A y.. -!-■ rnWHlovr

<S>J|h.rt1i)lLritllif .Ll nrqisjdiii.pkhiIvni|uJi^Kii ifkilWRKLWK xlUItt

V p 38® ,ii Jllu! iL- .y& KfT£xfl>filil yItuNic altitrtrfi'

UWCa ntulri Liu' E'liii hilII ^\liI 1 li. *iiJ ImifMii i| in itnulm iCii l .1 Xiij .vviiiL i. isVS. *'*’

The prettiest British-0ttoman railway share, printed by Waterlow & Sons

Another rather early railway company, the Rusjuk-Varna Railway Co,
was established in 1863 by the British. Its capital consisted of £900,000
and the 224 km line became operational in 1867. This area became part of
newly formed Bulgaria in 1878 and the British sold the company to the
Bulgarian State eight years later. The only known scripophily of this
company is a scarce 500 French franc (FF) bond issued in 1863. It was
marketed in Paris, London, Amsterdam and Brussels and collected
68,750,000 FF.

T he combination of Ottoman demand and foreign (political) eagerness
to get involved soon led to the first railway projects. Unsurprisingly,
the first companies formed were British:

The earliest one was the Euphrates Valley Railway Co. It was
incorporated in 1856 to link the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf
(Aleppo-Baghdad-Basra). The project never really took off and when in
1869 the Suez canal opened, it had lost its purpose. Soon after came the
much more successful Ottoman Railway Co from Smyrna to Aidin. It
was founded in 1857 with a capital of £1,200,000 to link the two western
Anatolian cities of Smyrna (now Izmir) and Aidin over a distance of 130
km. Its network later expanded to a total length of 610 km. Founder shares
of both these companies are known, but scarce - they represent the oldest
known scripophily of the Ottoman Empire. Also known (but extremely
rare) is a 1905 preference share of the Smyrna-Aidin railway.

The longest railway line initiated by the British was the Izmir-Kasaba
Railway Co, established in 1866. Including branches, it operated 702 km
of track. Also located in cotton-rich western Anatolia, the line brought raw
cotton to the port of Izmir where it could be shipped to Britain for further
use in its strongly modernized textile industry. No scripophily of this
company has been reported. When however in 1891 the Ottoman
Government announced its wish to acquire this British company, an
English-French group headed by Belgian Georges Nagelmakers (of
Orient-Express/Wagons-Lits fame) was formed to finance what would
become the first Ottoman railway company: the Ottoman Smyrne and
Cassaba Railway. While no shares have been seen of this company, three
loan issues are known: 1) 1894 - 56,560,000 FF, 2) 1895 - 77,500,000 FF
and 3) a consolidation loan of the two previous bond series, issued in 1922
for an outstanding amount of 30,396,625 FF. For the extension line
between Soma and Bandirma, a new loan (of 38,916,000 FF) was issued

(1) Egypt was de jure (in name) part of the Ottoman Empire until World War I. In practice
however, it was under British control from 1882.

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

in 1911 by the Ottoman Government in favor of the Chemin de Fer
Soma-Panderma.

The last British project was launched in 1893 when the Syria Ottoman
Railway Co was founded in London to link Haifa with Damascus.
Although the company raised £600,000 capital, the 253 km track was
never laid. Perhaps this failure is one of the reasons its shares are not too
difficult to find.

Deutsche Bank, led by the adventurous Georg von Siemens, that played
the first violin. They established in 1889 the Chemin de Fer Ottoman
d’Anatolie. Three years later, it had finished constructing a 578 km line
linking the soon to-be-built port of Haydarpasa (the Asian part of Istanbul)
through Izmir further inland to Ankara (the city that would, after World
War I, replace Istanbul as capital of the newly formed Turkish Republic)
and ending in the city of Konya. Because of several capital increases as
well as multiple bond issues, there is quite a bit of scripophily of this
railway around - see table 1.

One of the first such non-British projects was born
in 1869 when the Ottoman Minister of Public
Works met Munich banker Baron Moritz von
Hirsch. The idea was to build a railway
connecting the Empire’s capital, Istanbul, with the
Danube and ultimately Vienna. The Betriebs-
Gesellschaft der Orientalischen Eisenbahnen
(Oriental Railway Operating Co) was founded
with a capital of 20 million Austrian Gulden (50
million French francs). 18 years later, trains
finally ran from Istanbul to Vienna (some 1,500
km). A colourful detail is that in between, Baron
Hirsch had more or less robbed the Ottoman State
through a complicated bond scheme that in effect
made him a rich man and left the - already
financially distressed - Ottoman State bankrupt.
In 1890, Hirsch sold his interests to Deutsche
Bank which later that same year put the assets in
the Banque des Chemins de Fer Orientaux (Zurich),
a consortium of German, Austrian and Swiss
banks led by Deutsche Bank. Several of the state
bonds issued in support of the railway (and in
effect Baron Hirsch) as well as scripophily of the
Oriental Railway Co and the Swiss bank are
known - see table 1.

Under the leadership of Emperor Wilhelm II
(1888-1918), Germany further intensified its
“Drang nach Osten” (yearning for the East). Its
increased involvement in Anatolia was part of that
policy. It was, as already indicated above,

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

FRCNCH CAPITAL

T he first French venture was rather modest: to
build a 87 km line between Jaffa (a coastal
town on the Mediterranean, now Haifa) and
Jerusalem^). The Ottoman Railway Company
from Jaffa to Jerusalem was officially incorp¬
orated in Paris, 1889. Its financial means came
from its share capital, 4 million francs, and a bond
issue of 10 million francs. Both shares and bonds
have been seen by the author - but only once!

Two of the most important French-financed
railways were the Salonica^ 3 )-Constantinople and
the Salonica-Monastir lines. The first, 510 km
long, was built by the Chemin de Fer Ottoman
Jonction Salonique-Constantinople between
1892 and 1896. Both its shares (issued 1893) and
bonds, issued in the same year and for a total
amount of 160 million FF, are known to collectors.

(2) Palestine was for four centuries (1517-1917) part of the
Ottoman Empire.

(3) Salonica, or Thessaloniki, and its surrounding area, was the
last remaining part of Ottoman Greece. Most of Greece had
become independent in 1832, but Salonica only became part
of Greece in 1913.

A1903 bond issued by the Bagdad Railway Co with
text in Arabic, French, German and English

The famous Haydarpasa railway station on the banks
of the Bosphorus on the Asian side of Istanbul

Originally seen as an extension of the Anatolian railway, the ‘Bagdadbahn’
was arguably the most ambitious railway project in the Ottoman Empire.
It linked Konya (the terminal of the Anatolian railway) to Baghdad over a
distance of some 1,600 km (after WWI, the British further enlarged the
line to Basra - the port city in southern Iraq). The
necessary money came from different places, but
was in majority German. The Kaiserlich
Ottomanische Gesellschaft der Bagdadbahn
was formed in 1903 with a capital of 12,240,000
Reichsmark or £600,000. The Ottoman govern¬
ment also issued a number of bonds (1903, 1909)
to support the project. These, as well as the rare
founder shares, are amongst the most popular of
Ottoman railway certificates.

GCRMAN CAPITAL

W hile British capital was predominant in the construction of Ottoman
railways up to 1870, this later changed to the benefit of France and
- in the first place - Germany. This was partly the result of shifting
economic power from Great Britain towards
continental Europe, but also a deliberate policy by
Sultan Abdulhamid II (1876-1909) to better
balance his foreign relations.

Date Company

Known Ottoman-period Scripophily

1856 Euphrates Valley Railway Co

5 shares of £20 - 1856

10 shares of £20- 1856

1857 Ottoman Railway Co from Smyrna to Aidin

share of £20- 1863

6% cumulative preference share -1905

1863 Rusjuk-Varna Railway Co

1870 Betriebs-Ges. Der Orientalischen Eisenbahnen

3% obligation of 500 FF -1863

3% state bond of 400 FF - 1870 (in support of)
provisional state bond of 400 FF - 1872 (in support of)
4% bond of 500 FF -1894

4% bond of 2500 FF -1894

4% bond of 12.500 FF -1894
share of 200 Austrian Guilders -1906

1889 Chemin de Fer Ottoman d'Anatolie

5% bond of 408 Marks-1889

5% bond of 2040 Marks-1889

5% bond of 10.200 Marks-1889

5% bond of 408 Marks-1893

5% bond of 2040 Marks-1893
share of 408 Marks-1894
share of 408 Marks-1896
profit share-1897

4,5% bond of 408 Marks-1912

4,5% bond of 2040 Marks-1912

1889 Ottoman RaiIway Co from Jaffa to Jerusalem

share of 500 FF (unissued) -1891
bond of 500 FF-1894

1890 Banque des Chemins de Fer Orientaux

5 ordinary shares of 1000 Francs -1890

4,5% bond of 1000 Francs -1891 (unissued)
share of 1000 Francs-1907

1891 Chemin de Fer Ottoman Salonique-Monastir

3% bond of 500 FF-1893

3% bond of 2500 FF-1893

3% bond of 5000 FF-1893

1892 Chemin de Fer Ottoman Jonction Salonique-Constantinople share of 500 FF -1893

3% bond of 500 FF-1893

1893 Ottoman Smyrna and Cassaba Railway & Extension Co

4% bond of 500 FF -1894

4% bond of 2500 FF -1894

4% bond of 12.500 FF -1894

4% bond of 25.000 FF -1894

4% bond of 500 FF -1895

4% bond of 2500 FF -1895

4% state bond of 500 FF-1911

1893 Syria Ottoman Railway Co

(in support of the Soma-Panderma extension line)
preference share of £20- 1893

6% 1st mortgage debenture of £100 - 1893

1893 Chemin de Fer de Damas-Flamah et Prolongements

share of 500 FF -1901

4% bond of 500 FF -1901

4% bond of 500 FF -1905

4% bond of 500 FF -1910

1903 Kaiserlich Ottomanische Ges. der Bagdadbahn

share of 408 Marks-1903

4% bond of 408 Marks-1903

4% bond of 2040 Marks-1903

4% bond of 408 Marks-1909

4% bond of 2040 Marks-1909

1909 Chemin de Fer Fiode'i'dah-Sanaa et Embranchements

4% bond of 500 FF -1911

Table 1: An overview of all Ottoman railway scripophily reported (1856-1922)

The shares of the 1891 founded Chemin de Fer Ottoman
Salonique-Monastir, however, have not been seen. The sole
bond issue, 60 million FF and marketed in 1893, can be
found. The line, 219 km, was completed the next year. It was
however the previously mentioned Oriental Railway
Operating Co that exploited the line.

Finally, in what is today Syria, the French established the
Chemin de Fer de Damas-Hamah et Prolongements.

Founded in 1893 with a share capital of 15 million FF, the
idea was to build a line from Beirut to Damascus, and
beyond, finally linking to the Bagdad Railway (see below) at
Aleppo. Twelve years later, the line was completed. Both
shares (1901) and several bond issues (1901, 1905, 1910,
1923, 1950s) are known.

MUSLIM CAPITAL

T he only Ottoman railway build entirely with domestic
funding, was a railway project to link the Empire’s
capital, Istanbul, to the religious city of Mecca by adding to
the existing Istanbul-Damascus line a railway from
Damascus to Medina and Mecca. For religious reasons, the
use of foreign capital was out of the question (certainly no
interest-bearing bonds), so there is no scripophily for this
railway. The Ottoman State was, as so often in the late 19th
century, desperately short of money, so an appeal was made
to every Muslim to donate money (in return for medals) for
the so-called Hejaz Railway. The project was only able to
reach Medina, in 1908. Some sections of the track were laid
with metal sleepers due to the proclivity of the tribesmen on

Paris-printed share (by Chaix, 1903) of the Salonica-Constantinople
railway with text in French and Arabic and oriental border

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

J 7

the Arabian Peninsula to fuel their campfires with wooden ones. The project
also included a planned extension line all the way to Yemen on the southern
end of the Arabian peninsula - thus in practice linking Istanbul to Yemen. For
this purpose, the Chemin de Fer Hodei’dah-Sanaa & Embranchements was
founded in 1909 and bonds were issued two years later for a total amount of
22,727,500 FF. Although quite rare, these rather attractive bonds can be found.
During World War One, T E Lawrence and Arab tribesmen launched frequent
attacks on the line, one of which is depicted in the film Lawrence of Arabia
(the railway made a practice of discounting passenger tickets in carriages
located nearest the locomotives). The Arabian section of the railroad was
abandoned after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.

IN COMPARISON

A part from the Hejaz Railway, all railways built in the Ottoman Empire
were financed through western European countries. While the British
(10% of all track) were dominant in the early days, France (29%) and in
particular Germany (41%) became ultimately the dominant powers. Despite all
this foreign capital flowing into the country, the Ottoman Empire was by 1914
still behind other principal nations in terms of railway track per capita: three
times less than France and Germany and half of that of Great Britain.

Table 2: Railway track and population in 1914

Country

Railway track
(km)

Population

(millions)

Metres
per capita

Germany

63,378

56.4

1.124

France

40,770

38.5

1.059

Great Britain

32,623

42.5

0.768

Austro-Hungarian Empire

22,981

45.2

0.508

Russia

62,300

126.4

0.493

Ottoman Empire

9,000

26.0

0.346

Source: The Ottoman Empire 1850-1922,
Erik-Jan Zilrcher, University of Leiden, 2000

Moreover, the Ottoman railways brought more positive benefits to the
(foreign) private investors than to the government. Indeed, being built by
foreign investors, the railway network was mainly aimed at connecting the
ports with the hinterland to provide industry, also largely owned by foreigners,
with the necesssary means of transport for their goods. Hence, the shape of the
network differed a lot from the railway networks of countries like Great
Britain and France, which resemble a spider’s web connecting the metropolis
with the interior. The latter is more to the benefit of a state that wants to control
the outlying regions, which was actually the original aim of the Ottoman
authorities, but which they failed to achieve.

The Ottoman Empire collapsed as a result of World War I and and the
subsequent railway developments in the Republic of Turkey (established 1923)
and the other states formerly in the Empire are outside the scope of this article.

SCRIPOPHILY

18 2009/1

0™ T2G

SCRIP CERTIFICATE. tl» 130

I) LIMITED^

1 rim ' C .,,

/! //, sy A/ v . yy^i/y, s // s sff /f . /frK/ w

Cx t.t /// /,//,,/A 3= tU V . /

b u s . s . • / y ^

* {/< y

//, %r

yCert/ t*y ^y* //ft /ty a

t*y f-i

i/yt/t tty

The earliest Ottoman railway piece,
issued as an alternative option to the Suez Canal

Decorative Islamic design
for this religious line, an
extension of the Istanbul-
Mecca railway

Mario Boone is IBSS chairman, a scripophily collector, dealer and
auctioneer from Belgium.

COLLECTING SPECIMEN S
OF NORTH AMERICAN PRINTERS

— MAX D HENSLEY —

In 20031 was a relatively new collector attending my second Strasburg, Pennsylvania,
stock and bond show. I had seen a few specimen stocks and bonds, but nothing
prepared me for the thousands of American Bank Note Co (ABN) specimens being
offered at the show by Champion Stamp Co of New York. Champion had brought an
enormously entertaining selection of specimens representing a wide range of American
industrial financial history, ranging from railroads to mining companies, dry goods
houses, insurance, shipping, telephone and telegraph, automobiles, airlines, even an
asylum or two. Ever since, specimens have been an integral part of my collection.

T he collecting fraternity is lucky to have them. By the late 1980s the ABN had
accumulated enough specimens to pack a storage room with floor-to-ceiling antique
cabinets full of specimens. But they were no longer important to ABN, and quite a few
already had been tossed out or used as packing material. Fortunately, ABN decided to sell
the specimens to the scripophily trade. Since then specimens from other bank note
companies have come onto the market too. This article is about collecting these
specimens.

WHAT IS A SPECIMEN?

A specimen is generally a production example of a stock or bond certificate which has
most of the following characteristics:

• Marked “specimen,” usually stamped in red or blue, or spelled out by pinholes;

• Serial numbers printed as zeros;

• Cancelled, typically by punch holes in the signature area, also sometimes by
overprinting;

• Generally excellent condition, although most are folded at the stub line or at
normal bond fold lines;

• Unsigned or with preprinted signatures;

• No indication of issuance or transfer;

• Partial or complete stubs attached; and

• Printer control stamps like those shown in the illustrations.

Proofs are not specimens. Proofs are impressions used to check printing plate progress
and for client review. 19th and early 20th century engraved proofs were generally printed
on India paper with a card backing. India (actually, Chinese) paper is a very thin durable

Examples of specimen markings are shown below

American Bank Note Co

TTTTTr

rrrrrnrrf

ovin L{.acm

riMMWif SmutsffI mb flowspn xw

' /f r/ f ;* Y Mttf *K /r; /r // r / /y ffj/r /

/;//////ff/ fy s

. r/r/fjf /f M/j s f /Z/S/rff

r /f/'z/fwYYY ff/t/

■a. Im..v

Standard Smelting and Refining Co. The only known
specimen of a New York Bank Note Co certificate I have seen

Northern Bank Note Co, courtesy B. Schroer

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

paper having a smooth, chalky-appearing surface. Specimens, on the other
hand, are normally printed on production-run paper. Proofs often have
corrections and annotations and are not stamped “specimen.”

Specimens were essential to the bank note companies for security,
production and sales. They were sent to the customer for reference
purposes, and usually to the law firm working on the issue too. For
example, Spink in May will be offering a group of British Government
bond specimens sent by ABN to the National Savings Committee for
reference purposes. These are in addition to a few specimens of the same
bonds found in the ABN archives.

Starting in 1885 the New York Stock Exchange required specimen
certificates to be filed with the Exchange. After the establishment of the
Securities and Exchange Commission and the registration requirements
for securities, specimens were also included in filings with the SEC.
Occasionally they were used as models for revisions - I’ve seen an
International Motor Truck Corporation specimen with the pencil
notation “change to Mack Motor Truck, Inc.”

American Bank Note probably had separate specimen files at the sales
offices (at the 70 Broad Street headquarters starting in 1907) and the
Bronx printing plant (1911). The sales offices in other cities in which ABN
had offices, such as Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, would have had
their own specimen files.

Overall, it appears ABN was the only US company to use the word
“specimen” on securities before 1900. Western Bank Note and Franklin
Bank Note, for example, just punched holes in bond or certificate
signature lines. Homer Lee sometimes used the word “specimen” in the
punched signature lines (with zeros in the serial number panel), and
sometimes did not. International Bank Note generally just punched the
signature lines, and did not use the word “specimen” until around 1906-
1908, though zeros are generally found in the serial number panel. Several
Continental Bank Note production-run stock certificates have been seen
with the word “specimen” handwritten in the signature blocks.

Another category of unusual specimens complicates things. Transfer
agents made specimens from regular numbered certificates by punching
the signature lines, sometimes punching the number panel, and stamping
“specimen” or “cancelled” on the certificate. Issuing companies not
wanting to bother the bank note firm for additional specimens (and
possibly having to pay for a small additional run of certificates) might ask
the transfer agent to “specimen” a small group of regular numbered
certificates. I am aware of only a single specimen with a non-null serial
number that is confirmed to come from a printer archive, the illustrated
New York and Boston Cattle Co specimen.

Eve seen an ABN stock certificate with “specimen stock certificate” as the
masthead. This is a model stock certificate prepared for marketing
purposes.

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

msmsmsmmmssmm m

. K*

| Uf faA //- -_i-r

. SA/f/i,

Si*?.*-- :*t*i*: # FXJJ

This is the only non-null serial numbered certificate from the ABN archives. The
serif-bearing letters in the specimen stamp are typical for ABN specimens prior to
about 1890

WHY COLLECT SPECIMENS?

A specimen may be the only available certificate or bond for the issuer in
question. A brief look at Cox’s Collecting Stocks and Bonds from North
American Railroads (2nd Ed 2003) shows many railroads known from
only specimens.

Nearly three-quarters of a random group of ABN-printed certificates in my
collection appear to be available only as specimens - the issued
counterparts don’t appear in my own records or in several databases and
compilations. Mergers and/or redemptions over the years have removed
securities from the marketplace, especially in the case of successful
companies, so specimens may be all that remain.

Even if securities survive from a company, specimens may provide the
only source for varieties. Varieties are variations in the text or design of a
certificate, eg changes in company name, partial preprinted date, registrar,
transfer agent, share amounts, capitalization and the like, and include
transitional certificates. Transitional certificates include overprinting, eg
silvering over text and printing the new text on top. These typically were
issued only until the plates could be re-engraved and new certificates
printed. Many of these varieties are rare or non-existent in issued form.

Collectors interested in graphic art are attracted to specimens because
specimens are generally in excellent condition and they are often the only
source for “special” vignettes otherwise unavailable on shares of other
companies, as shown in the illustrated examples on the next page.

Kelly-Springfield Tire Co (NJ) Ca 1910 ABN

Horseshoe Mining Co (MT) Ca 1900 ABN

Note that the absence of specimens may make your issued piece more desirable from a
company rarity standpoint - specimens can dilute the “corporate rarity” of your issued
piece. About 20% of the issued ABN-printed securities in my collection have no counterpart
specimen known. This percentage is higher for other bank note printers such as Western
Bank Note Co and New York Bank Note Co, which are represented by relatively few
specimens.

Some collectors and dealers are not interested in specimens. Reasons given include that
specimens are not really stocks or bonds because they were never issued, they lack the
character of issued certificates, the field is too big and/or there’s uncertainty about how
many are “out there”. Certainly, an issued certificate has more to offer in its own way, most
notably the potential for valuable autographs. And the concern about hoards is well placed
- the owners of the specimen hoards that have entered the market over the last 2 decades
have not supplied publicly available inventories.

Specimens are the newest entries in a new field of collecting. It is natural that it will take
some time for them to be fully accepted by scripophilists. The closest analogy is found in
paper money specimens, most from the same printing companies, where specimens
representing otherwise unavailable issuers or denominations bring extremely high prices
and are well accepted.

ARE SPECIMENS RARE?

Sellers of specimen hoards have consistently told me that the archives contained 1 to about
5 specimens of any particular security, and careful record-keeping and other sources have
confirmed these general population statistics. However, specimens later than about 1950 are
far more numerous, both cumulatively and in terms of the numbers of any individual
certificate.

Numbers of appearances in the marketplace can be deceiving. On closer examination
apparent multiple offers of the same certificate turn out to be offers of different varieties.
Others may be resales of the same certificate - specimens do not bear serial numbers so it
takes careful examination to distinguish them. For example, I have seen a particular
specimen offered three times, but they were the same certificate as determined by the unique
placement and appearance of a printer stamp. This would not be immediately apparent to the
casual observer.

y SM/mt

£ %.*M

Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Co (NJ). Ca 1910. ABN litho

It is important to understand that corporate or issuer rarity is different from individual
certificate rarity. While any one certificate or bond may be present in small numbers, the
number of specimens for a given company can be substantial. The reason is that bank note
companies, issuers, and others generally retained specimens for each denomination and
class of securities. One often finds specimens for each variety.

Large companies ordered common and preferred stock certificates, and for each of these an
odd lot (“less than 100 shares”) and round lot (“100 shares”) certificate. Rarely, one finds
specimens for other denominations such as “unlimited” certificates (“more than 100 shares”).
With one to five of each in the archive, such a single-issue company will be represented by
about 4 to 20 specimen certificates. Less frequently, subclasses such as first and second
preferred will add to the total. Thus, specimens in general from larger, long-lived companies
are cumulatively more common because of the many discrete issues (although the early
varieties may be rare or non-existent). Specimens later than about 1950 also tend to be more

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1 2,t

available because there has been less time for attrition, even though the
number of varieties are less because, by that time, the New York Stock
Exchange was only permitting undenominated certificates.

A given company may issue both stock and bonds, and the bonds come in
two varieties, bearer (coupon) bonds and registered bonds. From the late
nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century bearer bonds were
generally issued in $500 and $1,000 denominations. Registered bonds
could be in the same denominations, but sometimes with $5,000 and
$10,000 denominations too. Statements that a given bond is unique must
be tempered with the understanding that one or more other denominations
may exist as well.

ABN specimens sometimes are encountered with a stamp like one of
these.

L-AST SPECIMEN

These do not necessarily mean the specimen is unique. For example, I
have seen a Chicago Fumber & Coal Co 2nd preferred with a “Fast
Specimen” stamp and another identical one without it.

We can only speculate why the number known may be inconsistent with
these legends. It may mean that the security was the last one in a particular
filing location, such as 70 Broad Street, or the Bronx plant, in the case of
American Bank Note. Or a specimen might have been found in the ABN
archive and another in a client company archive. While the “last one”
legend appears to correlate very roughly with scarcity, it is not conclusive.

Please be aware that the Whaco database did not enter specimens until the
mid- to late 2000s. Further Whaco did not enter the contents of multiple
items lots. RM Smythe sold many specimens via multiple item lots.

FAKES, PLATES AND
UNISSUED SECURITIES

Theoretically, one could create a specimen from an unissued security by
using a rubber “specimen” stamp and a hole punch, and this is indeed what
some transfer agents did, as mentioned earlier. But this practice was

SCRIPOPHILY

22 2009/1

unusual. You should be on alert if a purported specimen bears a serial
number other than zero.

Another question is how to distinguish a specimen from an unissued
security when the item is devoid of either a “specimen” designation or a
serial number. This is mainly a problem with 19th century bonds. Also,
some nineteenth century bonds are devoid of printed serial numbers
because serial numbers were intended to be hand written as the bonds were
issued. However, specimen bonds of this sort will have punch-out cancels
at the signature lines.

Then there is the matter of original printing plates. A coin dealer bought
the ABN archive of printing plates and dies, and has been auctioning them
off through Stack’s (New York) for several years. The stock certificate
offerings have been mostly vignette dies and plates, with only about six
complete (border and vignette) face plates auctioned so far.

Even if the vignette and proper border plates for a certificate exist (there
would be one for the border and one for the vignette/legend if, like most,
the specimen is bicolored), the backs would have to be available too - and
so far I have not seen a single one of these. In addition, there would be the
significant problem of actually printing the certificates. This is an arduous
and expensive process, and even when undertaken by ABN itself the
results were distinguishable from the originals. In the 1970s ABN reprinted
about seven decorative stock certificates from original plates for Time-Fife
Books’ Opening of the West series. I compared one of these reprints with
an original specimen. The reprint was noticeably weaker and lacked the
color intensity of the original. Reprinting original intaglio plates would
require application of a nearly extinct art. Finally, many of the archive
plates have rust spots, which would detectably mar the images.

tinier of

r *Mtj o /r fJ/vrf

rff/fi/f// //

r j/j . ■ ,,cc *

'///////:t

SVANDAIU) f OASOJJ J) VIT71) * (- UMBtVj

TZ' K-r ^/„//.... . .. 'tks. ....

/ TEN > ' 4 ‘/ff/ f.t rsft/s. /t/fmfrffs/'// t /t/ty fy

1 //Jr/fU-y fjf J/tf. /fftMi/tf . '///vXj f/ //ft ,ttw/ 4yi wft/r/t/y ///

y ft/A'. ft/ /Af *A //ft* 4y /

L-hl iL-fi l'Il'h j' J/tt 'Aft.ittA/ff fit/ Atitt fatty if t

] fas/y Artf/t/r/t'i m/:ti tr/rt//A/t //r////*;.*f/ttj tAftf */

SPECIMEN

Sartaon

Varieties may he only available as specimens, such as this Standard Consolidated
Mining Co with capital and share price oversilvered and reduced to $2 million
and $10. Stub stamped “DEC 1896”. ABN

HOW OLD IS MY SPECIMEN?

Specimens date from the 1870s to recent times. Most are undated or only
have partial dates. However, around a sixth of the ABN specimens printed
from about 1896 to 1909 have month-day-year date stamps or month-year
pencil dates on the stub. Otherwise, you can get an idea as to the era of
your specimen by considering one or more of the following: Incorporation
date (state records, the Manual of Statistics or similar contemporary guides
list companies and their incorporation dates); planchettes (colored dots in
the paper introduced after about 1925); stylistic features (Aesthetic Period
embellishments such as asymmetry, palm plants, flowers and the like,
dating from about 1880 to 1900); absence of complete borders (after about
1960), printed partial dates (don’t forget to check the stub); CUSIP
numbers (tracking numbers like those found on your checks, introduced
after 1967); and facsimile signatures, printed seals and the absence of a
stub (all after about 1935). In addition, the job number in the top margin
of ABN specimens from about 1966 onward have the order year as the last
two numbers separated by a dash from the rest of the numbers.

Bonds can normally be dated by the date given at the end of the text.
However, ABN sometimes reprinted bonds where the maturity date was
quite long, say 60 or 100 years.

HOW MUCH IS MY SPECIMEN WORTH?

Well, that depends. While most older specimens individually are scarce to
rare, rarity is only one factor among many influences on market value (see
Cox’s Corner in the December 2008 Scripophily). Prices are also a
function of age, condition, artistry, existence of “competing” comparable
certificates and, most important, “popularity.”

Securities of companies such as the Central Railroad of New Jersey (the railroad
that serviced Ellis Island) are only available as specimens; the issued ones are
rumored to have been used as ferry boiler fuel

Generally, popularity - not rarity - sets the price. Specimens for popular
collecting categories like automotive, shipping, railroad, mining and
communications bring more, as do specimens from western US companies
(especially Colorado and Alaska), those having a celebrity connection, and
companies that developed into well-known modern corporations.

.SffcSI7

Specimens often bear printer's internal control stamps. ABN

The most expensive specimen on record is the Buffalo Bill Wild West
Show stock certificate that brought $17,600 in RM Smythe’s January
1998 sale, described as unique. This price was comparable to the $10,080
realized later for an issued example by R M Smythe in January 2001 (with
Cody signature) and the $20,000 attained by an issued example (without
Cody signature) sold by RM Smythe in February 2008. After this, bonds
bring some of the highest prices, particularly rare US railroad bonds.
Examples from the H R Harmer (Bethel CT) sale of June 2008 include the
San Antonio & Gulf Shore Railway bond of 1894 (realized $2000; ‘one
of 2 found in archive’) and the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway 1893
bond (realized $1,200; ‘last of 3 found in archive’). Prices include premiums.

Specimen prices vary widely from one hobby segment to the next, but by
any measure stock and bond specimens are cheap. For example, as a
general rule stock and bond specimens bring far less at auction than do
bank note specimens. Rare denomination/issuer ABN paper money
specimens easily sell above $1,000 while stock and bond certificates
almost never reach this level - even when unique or nearly so. Many
stock and bond specimens for which I estimate no more than 2 to 4 exist
can be purchased for under $50 in unpopular fields, and they rarely exceed
$750 in any field.

Specimens regularly appear at auction and on eBay. Modern issues can be
had for only a few dollars each in extremely large lots, but mostly the

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1 2,3

material goes for between $20 and $200. Any specimen bringing more
than $200 on eBay is exceptional; most sell for between $40 and $100. In
the HR Harmer ABN III sale (June 2008) the average selling price for a
US specimen was about $290, including multiple-piece lots and the
buyer’s premium. This must be considered a high-end auction price - the
material was mostly rare and popular locations and categories (Alaska,
Colorado mining, Western Railroads, etc.). Non-US specimens in this sale
brought about $300 on average, boosted by rare sovereign debt issues of
popular countries.

There is legitimate concern that further dispersal of hoards will reduce
prices. Specimens first began to appear on the market in the mid-1980s.
Most hoards have been at least partly dispersed, but material continues to
emerge. 2007 saw the dispersal of about 180 specimen Canadian
certificates from the British American Bank Note Co and Canadian Bank
Note Co. Western Bank Note Co specimens have been dribbling onto the
market for at least 5 years and many more probably exist. Bob Schwartz
via HR Harmer has been auctioning off an archive of specimen Security
Bank Note Co stocks and ABN bonds. Champion Stamp retains an
inventory of about 20,000 mostly post-1900 ABN specimen stock
certificates (but not bonds). So far, these sales have not had an adverse
effect on prices, although the lack of transparency from sellers regarding
populations is probably depressing prices - particularly for authentically

very luxurious passenger liner. Now at 59,956 GRT the ex-Vaterland was
once again the largest passenger ship in the world and still is the largest
US passenger steamer of all time, even surpassing the legendary United
States of 1952.

Alas, the last part of the life story of this gorgeous ship was not very
glamorous - only misfortune and shortcoming. Even though the
passengers loved this liner it never made money, maybe because she sailed
alone without an equal sister ship. The Leviathan was a fast vessel and
therefore expensive to operate. Prohibition brought a slump in passengers
numbers, if not their morale - suddenly there was not a drop of official
alcohol available on board for the entire voyage. In addition the hull
formed cracks which, although sealed and strengthened, were not
comforting.

The Depression finished the Leviathan off. She was decommissioned in
New York on 14th September 1934 and lay there until December 1937
when she was sold to British breakers. They sent a transfer-crew for the

SCRIPOPHILY

2 a 2009/1

rare items because no one has any confidence that they really are rare.
Paradoxically, the dispersal of large hoards of other collectibles has had
the effect of drawing more collectors into such markets and raising prices
as a result.

CONCLUSION

Specimens offer the advantage of modest cost, scarcity, excellent graphics,
superlative condition and, most importantly, the ability to obtain securities
and varieties that otherwise would be unavailable. The downside is that
they lack the “personality” of issued securities and, for the time being, the
market is being held back by scanty information about the size and scope
of hoards and dealer inventories.

Acknowledgments. The author thanks Bob Schwartz, Art Morowitz and
Mark Tomasko for helpful observations and comments. Cover image
courtesy Champion Stamp Co.

Max Hensley is a semi-retired patent attorney who has been collecting
since 2000 stocks and bonds printed by bank note companies, with
particular interest in the art of scripophily. maxdhensley@yahoo.com

last voyage to Europe. It turned out to be a horrible crossing. The vessel
was in desolate condition and only provisionally made ready for a winter
crossing of the North Atlantic. En route, boiler tubes burst and time and
again small fires broke out. The ship leaked and the cracks broke open
again. But on 14th February 1938 she finally reached Rosyth in Scotland
where she was ultimately broken up.

The story behind the vignettes on these stock certificates shows how, for
only a few Dollars or Euros, a collector can find hours of pleasure and
education. And now you know how it’s not the Titanic , it’s the
Kronprinzessin Cecilie !

Andreas Reineke is a current IBSS committee member collecting
shipping/maritime scripophily as well as aviation since the 1990s. He
heard about the story of the Kronprinzessin Cecilie and the Vaterland
for the first time at the 1997 stock and bond show in Strasburg, PA.

XaLm* \AI\ 4*A

— f\Uz ti/UuL —

I taly is one of the biggest wine producers in the
world. Furthermore, Italy is one of the oldest
wine producers in the world. Family Business
ranked the oldest extant companies in the world,
and among the first four was a famous Italian
wine and olive oil producer “Barone Ricasoli,”
established in 1141! So collectors should have
expected to find many Italian winery certificates.

Some years ago Portafoglio Storico organized a
mailing to all Italian wine-related corporations
(about 250). Its purpose was to get images of
certificates to include in the Italian regional
catalogues Carte Valori d’Epoca - Collana
Regionale (Regional series of antique stock and
bond certificates).* An astonishingly low
number of answers was received: - only three,
with only one nice stock certificate found. It was
a big disappointment, though a couple of the
missing ones could be found on the Italian Stock
Exchange before the dematerialization process
that led to the demise of paper stock certificates:
Martini e Rossi and Francesco Cinzano
(Campari Group).

In the past, most Italian wine makers were
organized as family businesses. Only at the
beginning of the 20th century did some very
small businesses begin to unify in co-operative
companies. This is demonstrated by the fact that
among the certificates known and issued by the
20 companies listed below, only one is dated in
the 19th century. Many of them adopted names
like “Cantina Sociale” followed by the place of
issue, usually the town where the company
members were operating. “Cantina Sociale”
literally means “social wine cellar,” a co¬
operative organization for wine production and
sale.

satin* mpmorhes^II

■ WMALE SOCMUpMOOO L

Ditfisam ionoo mom m u us mm . df

One of the oldest Italian winery certificates, the
Societa Vinicola Torinese (1873)

fataistriatymiffiarsala S jft&fcrienarc

Titob a\ port Alert per DIECr Ati-om

Highly decorative certificate of the Industria Vini
Marsala D’Ali e Bordonaro (1911)

date found on the certificate listed. Sometimes
this date corresponds with the date of the
company’s foundation.

Company’s name, place and date of issue:

• Aula & Virgilio S.A. Vini Marsala; Trapani

1921;

• Cantina Cooperativa Vini di Castelfranco

Emilia 1965;

• Cantina e Magazzini Generali, Velletri 1915;

• Cantina Giuliana Gaiarine, Treviso 1952;

• Cantina Sociale Azelio Grilli, Arezzo 1912;

• Cantina Sociale di Carpi, 1944;

• Cantina Sociale di Castell’Alfero, Asti 1908;

• Cantina Sociale Forlivese 1927;

• Cantine Marchese Fassati Vini ed Olii del

Chianti, Milano, 1913;

• Cinzano Francesco, Torino 1942;

• Fassati Casa Vinicola Vini ed Olii del Chianti,

Firenze 1919;

• Industria Vini Marsala d’Ali & Bordonaro,

Trapani 1911;

• Ligure Produzione Aceti di Vino, Genova 1910;

• S AVI - Societa per Azioni Vinicola Italiana,

Torino 1961;

• Sarda Vini, S as sari 1949;

• Societa Vinicola Italiana Casteggio; Pavia

1919;

• Societa Vinicola Torinese, Torino 1873;

• Vinalcre - Nuova Societa Ital. Trattamento di

Vinacce, Roma 1906;

• Vinicola Italiana Florio Ingham Whitaker

Woodhouse, Trapani 1961;

• Vino - Vermouth di Torino E. Martinazzi &

C., Torino 1907.

* Sicily and Veneto were published by Portafoglio
Storico in 2006, with Campania coming in 2009.

Following is a list of stock certificates for Italian wineries which have
appeared in the market (auctions, price-lists, collector holdings, etc.). The
list is believed to be almost complete. The date of issue listed below is the

Alex Witula is the founder and manager of Portafoglio Storico, a firm
established in 1982 in Bologna (Italy) dealing with antique stock and bond
certificates, and is an editor and auctioneer.

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

The IBNS is an international
organization devoted to the
study of world paper money.
It issues a quarterly journal,
holds frequent auctions, and
holds regular meetings.

For further information visit
our website: wwwJheibns.org
or contact our secretary:

IBNS Secretary
36 Lee Heights,
Bambridge Court,
Maidstone Kent ME14 2Lg
Email: uk-secretary@ibns.lbx

www.theibns.org

AUCTION MARKETS

No, scripophily is not in troubled waters I

SCRIPOPHILY SALES ARE GROWING FAST

I n spite of the economic crisis, auction sales of scripophily are continuing the strong growth seen
in every period since we re-started our statistical series in 2006. After removing the massive
Busso Peus Reichsbank sales from the figures (because they occur in some periods and not others,
hugely distorting the trends), the four months December 2008-March 2009 saw an increase
compared with the same period in 2007/8 of 13% in the number of lots sold, with sales turnover up
23% measured in euros, 47% in the weakening pound and 7% in terms of dollars.

The overall percentage sold was a little higher than in the comparison period, and the average price
per lot increased massively in terms of euros and pounds but not dollars. We think this is due mainly
to new and old buyers being willing to pay higher prices for quality material. We have not analysed
national markets but our hunch is that the major recent growth has been in Russian shares, Chinese
bonds, Ottomans and early British.

However, despite the growth in total sales value and average price, the prices achieved by familiar
pieces are often lower than before. Collectors are being prudent with the level of their bids. Many
pieces now sell at their start prices or below their bottom estimates. The percentages sold, especially
for low-level items, are only high in those auctions where the house sets estimates or start prices at
low levels. In such auctions, this might indeed be a good time to pick up some interesting pieces
without too much competition.

www.scripophily.nl

> 3000 items
world-wide

The scripophily auction market in the US is an exception to the picture of world growth. US sales
in the period were down by lots offered, percentage sold and total sales value (down 23% in dollars).
We attribute this partly to the severe effect of the economic crisis in the US and partly to the fact
that Spink Smythe has not yet addressed the market in the way the market leader Smythe did before
being acquired. New sales are being generated by Harmer’s and Stack’s of New York at relatively
high prices by introducing scripophily to crossover markets such as their paper money and mining
collectors.

quickly accessible:

search by country, activity or illustration

Dr. Hugo H. van der Molen

Wederikweg 114, 9753 AE Haren,
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 (0)50 5348795
Fax: +31 (0)50 5340852

deutsch - English - fran^ais

email: hugo@hugovandermolen.nl

SCRIPOPHILY

2 6

2009/1

WORLDWIDE AUCTION SALES DECEMBER 2008 - MARCH 2009

No. of scripophily

% sold by

Total sales including buyer's premium

Firm

Date

Place

lots offered

number of lots

€

Boone

20/21-Mar

Antwerp

1,977

55%

723,096

672,082

980,374

Belgium

1,977

55%

723,096

672,082

980,374

Gutowski

26-Jan

Mailbid

1,569

62%

94,139

88,443

122,287

Tschoepe

17-Feb/4-Mar

Mailbid

1,406

53%

27,111

24,133

34,037

HSK

21-Feb

Hamburg

1,600

36%

146,180

129,875

185,723

HWPH

7-Mar

Munich

319

55%

112,047

102,119

140,787

Germany

4,894

51%

379,477

344,570

482,834

Spink Smythe

17-Jan

New York

348

56%

45,812

41,449

60,390

Stack's

13-Feb

Tucson AZ

128

91%

50,222

44,404

64,400

Harmer

18/20-Feb

Bethel CT

1,019

51%

126,955

111,848

159,850

USA

1,495

56%

222,989

197,701

284,640

Gasche

13-Dec

Mailbid

649

100%

23,606

17,531

34,391

HIWEPA

15-Dec

Mailbid

399

98%

17,756

15,880

24,240

HIWEPA

14-Mar

Basel

285

100%

91,758

84,467

119,669

HIWEPA

16-Mar

Mailbid

471

99%

14,409

13,396

18,921

Switzerland

1,804

99%

147,529

131,274

197,221

London Coins

6-Dec

Bracknell

150

80%

15,185

13,250

19,652

Spink

27-Jan

London

703

63%

105,690

98,850

139,248

IBSS

30-Jan

Mailbid

225

79%

4,718

4,236

6,047

London Coins

28-Feb

Bracknell

175

51%

20,402

18,224

25,697

1,253

66%

145,995

134,560

190,644

Galileo

31-Jan

France

518

32%

18,150

16,396

23,159

World

11,941

60%

€1,637,236

£1,496,583

$2,158,872

Sf AUCTION REVIEWS

View our website. Fuller versions of these reviews with more
prices and illustrations can be read on www.scripophily.org

SPINK SMYTHE

New York, January 17

T his was not a very big auction - 348 lots, almost all US - but
with a lot of good pieces. The percentage sold was 56% for
a total hammer price of $50,325 (£34,500/€38,000).

The top price was for a Chicago St Louis & Pittsburg Railroad

share (1890) issued to and signed by the mining giant Meyer
Guggenheim, sold at its bottom estimate of $2,500. A
magnificent Submarine Boat & Torpedo stock from 1899 sold
twenty percent above its bottom estimate - it fetched $2,400. Out
of the eight scarce Confederate bonds with a four-digit estimate,
three sold well, between $1,000 and $1,500.

The sale contained 22 pieces with bottom estimates of $1,000 or
more, but only 9 of these sold. A final interesting statistic is that
only 54 lots, 16%, sold above their bottom estimate. Just four
succeeded in doubling it. In other words, bidding was very much
concentrated at 80%-100% of the bottom estimate, and 25 lots
sold for as little as 40%-56% of their bottom estimate - a tip for
future mailbidders?

’.mam,

rvimvvminviw ■

— \

RH .... agggjggBBK 1

y..'. , i. j, . J

' fe hi j.-W / it * * & ■? r • z

- -£. |>41 m ** *>f ** ~ "

■'. tAwf'dr. f

This Chicago St Louis & Pittsburg Railroad stock (1890) issued to
and signed by Meyer Guggenheim achieved the top price at $2,500

BUYER S PREMIUM

Most auctioneers charge a premium to the buyer (as well as sales
commission paid by the seller), generally in the range 15-20% of the
hammer price, plus local taxes. The figures reported in our auction
reports are hammer prices, not including the buyer’s premium.

SPINK

London, January 27

S pink’s superb London catalogue contained 703 lots, mostly mid-market, of
which 65% sold, excellent for these times, with a hammer total of £85,225
(€88,000/$ 116,000).

In a large Russian section, 79% of the 120 lots found buyers, with some very
strong prices. A set of 3 different specimen bonds of the 1896 State Gold Loan
was bid far above its £150-£200 estimate to take £1,600. Demand for Chinese
pieces remains strong and this section of 74 lots saw 77% sold including a rare £20
denomination Hukuang Railways 1911 Loan, issued by the American banks,
which sold for £1,400, £400 above top estimate.

Not often seen at auction was a large section from India, Burma and Ceylon, 88
lots of which 86 sold, many for excellent prices. A Chartered Bank of India,
Australia & China share of 1854 sold at £380 (estimate £80-£100). Australia was
well received with all 19 lots selling for around estimate, for example a Hampton
Plains Exploration share of 1895 going for £70. Also of note was a State of
Buenos Aires loan, issued in 1826, which sold for £310. There were 24 lots of
Japanese from the Boling collection, just over half finding buyers including a 1907
Sterling Loan £200 which made £800.

The British section was the largest in the sale (126 lots) but results were mixed
with 60 unsold. Prices of note were for an Argyll Motors share of 1908, sold for
£150, and a Low Hill General Cemetery share of 1829 at £350. The US section
was small and many of the prices realised were historically low. A Philadelphia
& Lancaster Turnpike share of 1795 sold for £280 ($390), but a Standard Oil
Co share of 1878, estimated at £3,000-up ($4,225), was not wanted at all.

As with Spink’s last two London sales, the catalogue was liberally sprinkled with
specimens from the Bradbury Wilkinson archive - in fact over 10% of the lots
on offer - such as four different bonds of the Underground Electric Railways Co

of London (£100-£140 each), an Egyptian
State Loan 1888 (£150) and a Mexican
Railway Co (£70).

IH)I +i> 7M.OCM1 fall

£500 denomination 1898 Chinese Gold
Loan bond issued by the Deutsch-
Asiatische Bank sold for £2,800, the
top price in the sale although below
its estimated £3,000-£4,000. Only 100
of these bonds were issued

Three Bradbury Wilkinson specimen bonds of
the well known armaments firm Vickers Sons &
Maxim made £140 each

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

GUTOWSKI

Mailbid, January 26

A nother large mailbid auction from Gutowski with almost 1,600 lots, 62% sold for a total of €80,000 (£75,000/$ 104,000). Germany once more was
the largest section with 1,100 lots (62% sold), followed by USA with 235, also 62% sold, a very good result for US these days. British also did
unusually well, selling 78% of 27 lots. The Russian section was very small and there were no Chinese.

The high proportion sold compared with other German auctions is partly explained by the low start prices, set at half what the auction house believes to
be the value. Lots going above their start prices included a Bergbau-AG Medio-Rhein share 1858 at €600 (start €450) and an 1873 share of the
Wilmington & Western Railroad at €400 ($520, start price €350). Successes at their start prices included a 1746 Monte della Citta Firenze bond at
€650, an 1853 Frankfort Wiesbaden Cologne Eisenbahn share at €750 and the Swedish West-Indiska Co share 1787 at €650.

Ten lots had start prices at or above €1,000, but only one was sold - an 1810 Gotha Canal at €1,000. The failures included the well known Vienna
Gigantic Wheel Company (offered at €1,750), and an 1875 share of The Real Estate Associates, San Francisco, showing a view of Alcatraz, offered at
€1,200 ($1,560).

These vignettes
show the quality
often to be seen
on 19th century
Swedish shares

IBSS

Mailbid, January 30

T his was another Society auction which
was well supported by members with
79% of the 225 lots selling for a hammer
total of £3,851. The full results are shown
in the current IBSS auction catalogue.

Most lots were modestly priced with
estimates set below £25. The sections
which fared best were Australia, Canada,
India and Russia, with Southern Africa
being the weakest area.

The highest price was £200 for an
American Express share of 1865. A
Mexican Real Del Monte Mining
subscription certificate from 1831 sold for
£102, a Yunnan-Szechuan Railway
certificate, 1909-11 issue, fetched £101,
and a West Cork Mining share of 1836
made £85.

DAVID M BEACH
RARE ANTIQUE STOCKS CATTERY

Fantastic Website - over 4000 Photos

Everything from less expensive to Great Rarities

Go to www.cigarboxlabels.com

Mining - Railroads - Telegraph - Telephone - Automobile - Navigation - Banks -
Industry - Autographs - Robber Barons - Jay Gould - James Fisk Jr. - Other Fields - etc.

We Also Buy!!!!

GREAT SEARCH ENGINE to help you find things fast

Visit us near Disneyworld near Orlando Florida

NEW EMAIL antiquestocks@cfl.rr.com
PO Box 471356 Lake Monroe, Florida 32747

407 688 7403

- — 1Y

SCRIPOPHILY

28 2009/1

STACK'S

Tucson AZ, February 13

T he live auction by Stack’s of New York, held conjointly with the
Tucson Gem and Mineral Main Show, contained 128 lots of
stocks and bonds amongst high-end minerals, gems and mining
ephemera. They did a nice job with the catalogue, providing large
colour illustrations of each lot and detailed descriptions. The results
were record-breakers across the board. Only 11 pieces failed to sell,
giving 91% sold for a total hammer of $56,000 (£39,000/€54,000).

The highest priced stock was the Rosebud Indian Mission 1886
selling at $3,750 against an estimate of $700 and well above auction
prices elsewhere. A Bodie Bluff Consolidation Mining Co unissued
but signed by Leland Stanford as president fetched $2,000 - records
show sales of 16 offered in 1991-2003 at $750-$l,300. A
Philadelphia & Lancaster Turnpike 1795 signed Wm Bingham
sold for $1,700 (estimate $1,200). The decorative but common
Climax Mining Co stock made $300, although regularly available on
eBay at much less.

In the Stack's auction review on
our website you can find many
more of the prices realised in
this sale, and comparisons with
prices from other sales.

Geronimo Mining Co, Arizona,
1917, with vignette of the Apache
warrior Geronimo, sold for $500.
No previous sales noted (archive
image)

TSCHOPE

Mailbid, February 17-March 4

A uktionshaus Tschope is very well known for live auctions of
high quality scripophily. But this one was a mailbid with over
1,400 lots of low and middle grade material, some with start prices
as low as €1. The total prices realised came to just €23,000
(£20,500/$29,000) with 53% sold.

The highest price paid was the start price €650 for an 1884 bond of
a famous concert hall, Neuen Gewandhauses in Leipzig. This price
was not typical of the sale, however. More typically, a group of ten
City of Moscow bonds, 1900/01, sold for €58 per bond. Many
bargains could be had for only €1. Most of the lots were German but
there were also Russians, other Europeans and North and South
American.

Nobody wanted, for just €25, a remarkable 1856 share in a Franco-
German company for emigration to Virginia, with vignettes of
mining, shipping and farming plus Washington, Jefferson, Madison
and others.

HARMER

Bethel CT, February 18-20

I ncluded in this fourth Harmer sale of items originally from the American
Bank Note Co archives were 1,019 lots of scripophily, mostly 20th century
specimens or unissued. The total hammer for the stocks and bonds came to
$139,000 (£97,000/€110,000) from 51% sold. The average price was about half
of that in last June’s sale but considering the economic events occurring in the
week of the sale, the firm was happy with the results.

The highest price was for an issued 1877 Alaska Gold & Silver Mining Co
share with a panoramic view of an Alaska shoreline, going for $3,750 to a happy
buyer after an intense bidding war. Aviation was respectable with 7 out of 9 lots
selling, the highlight an issued Aroostook Airlines stock from 1929, flying out
the door for $450. Computer and internet specimen stocks did very well with all
6 lots selling, the top being a Fairchild Semiconductor specimen at $375.

Worldwide stocks and bonds had mixed results with a some countries showing
major strength and others disappearing from the bidding map. The highlight of
the small Chinese section was a lot of three different 1933 Shanghai Telephone
Co bonds hammered for $825. Panama and Puerto Rico did well with the whole
of their small sections selling. Poland proved to be one of the strongest with 34
lots selling out of 42 lots offered, all of them specimen bonds such as a $1,000
Republic of Poland Stabilization Loan, series due 1956, hammering for
$1,300. A Lithuanian Liberty Loan Bond specimen sold for $375.

The 388 lots of US and foreign railroads were mixed, 50% selling. The
successes included an Arizona Eastern Railroad specimen bond hammered for
$950. Guatemala was highlighted by The International Railways of Central
America, hammering for $600.

A specimen $5,000 bond of The
Pennsylvania Ohio & Detroit
Railroad, with an interesting
added legend stating that the
bond would not be payable in
gold due to the country going
off the Gold Standard, sold for
$325.

El Paso &
Southwestern Railroad
sold for $1,100

A specimen Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Ferrocarril Troncal De Oxaca went for $1,150

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

GALILEOAUCTION

and Gilbert Lamblaut
invite you to Paris, France,
for our forthcoming sale on

20th October 2009

This auction will include a wide range of
interesting and valuable material:
Stock and Bonds. Paper Money
and Related Documents.

For details or for consignments
please contact Gilbert Lamblaut
18 rue Lamblardie
F 75012 Paris, France
email: scripomania@yahoo.fr
or call us: +33 6 64 45 10 20

Catalogue on website from September 2009

www.galileoauction.com

Are you interested in collecting
Old Cheques, other Financial
Instruments or Banking
Ephemera?

Then why not join the British
Banking History Society?

For details Tel 020 8360 5665
and ask for Keith.

We have a quarterly Magazine and
arrange archive visits to many of the
Bank Archives.

HSK

Hamburg, February 21

T he 27th HSK auction was again a three-parter with a speech, the auction and a (truly) small
bourse. Dr Jochen Haeusler made a superb speech about Rachmaninov. The auction saw 1,600
lots, but only 36% sold. The total hammer-price was €124,000 (£109,000/$ 157,000). Not much,
compared with €300,000 start price and the last HSK auction’s €258,000 on the hammer. Most of
the higher priced pieces went to ‘the book’ (mail bidders), even though the room was quite well filled
with bidders, or do we have to say observers?

Many high-priced pieces did not sell, even from Russia, although there were some strong prices, such
as a Libau-Hasenpoth ‘narrow-gauge feederline’ Co 5% bond, 100 Rouble, Lipaja, Latvia 1898,
which was actively bid for, rising to €3,300 from a €2,000 start. The highest Russian price was
€5,000 (its start) for a Wladikawkas Railway 4% bond, 10,000-Rouble specimen, St Petersburg
1903. 42 of the 70 Russian lots did not sell. One of the Russian pieces was very much under¬
estimated - a 1917 100-Rouble share of the Printers

This Thomas A Edison Inc share 1925,
signed by Edison as president, sold above
its start for €580 ($735)

LONDON COINS

Bracknell, February 28

T his London Coin sale included 175 lots of scripophily of which 51% sold for a hammer total of
£15,510 (€17,000/$22,000), a better total but lower percentage than the December auction
which sold 80%. Many of the unwanted lots were mixed lots of common certificates. The attendance
was sparse but there was strong bidding from the room and the book on some lots.

The China section was well received with 43 of the 54 lots selling at strong prices. A Treasury Bill
of 1912 for 1,000 taels made £1,000 and a lot containing six 1913 Reorganisation Loan, 2,045 mark
denomination, sold for £2,000. By contrast the 39 Russia lots saw only 10 lots wanted. However
these did include a City of Nikolaef 1912 Loan, second series, £500 denomination which sold for
an impressive £2,300.

The British section saw 17 out of 28 lots selling. Of note were a Stratford-upon-Avon Canal
Navigation certificate of 1823, not seen before, which sold for £320, and a Durham & Sunderland
Railway share of 1834 at £220. The US section of 24 lots was very poor with only 6 lots finding
buyers. Australians did well with two multiple lots selling well above estimate. A Bank of Australia
share of 1833 had made the highest individual price in the December sale, £650.

Co-operative Peschatnoje Djulo, Berdjansk, Ukraine,
with a start price of €100. It rose to €1,600.

1,217 lots were German. The North German regions,
with 733 lots, always a feature at HSK, attracted some
bidders in the room. A share in the fishing trawler
Carsten, of Geestemiinde, near Bremerhaven, 1907,
fetched €1,600 (€1,000 start) and two other trawler
shares from the same port sold for more than €1,000.
Sugar company shares as well as papers from
Braunschweig (Brunswick) were sought. The would-be
auction highlight was an 1856 founders share of the
Disconto-Gesellschaft in Berlin, later part of Deutsche
Bank, but it remained unsold at €15,000.

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

HWPH

Munich, March 7

W ith 71% of their last auction’s turnover consisting of
Russian material, HWPH decided this time to focus
entirely on the booming Russian market with a Russian-only
sale, held during the Munich Numismata event, one of the
largest coin shows in the world. The total sold came to €94,955
(£86,500/$ 119,000). While the results are well below last
year’s performances for Russian scripophily, they are still
better than the average overall auction results in Germany these
days.

The catalogue was bilingual (Russian/German). It offered 319
Russian lots and included no fewer than 43 pieces with start
prices at or above €1,000. Three out of four of these top pieces
sold, including the two highest - a 10,000-rouble Wladikawkas
Railway bond from 1919 and a previously unseen 10-share
certificate of the Moscow-Kazan Railway 1900, each selling
at its €4,500 start price. Unlike Russians in recent auctions,
most pieces sold at or not much above their start prices. The
average sales price was just 9% above the start price. A spectacular
exception was the South-Russian Co for Trade in Cattle and
Dairy Produce which went to €3,900 from €750 start.

In line with our recent predictions ( Scripophily December 2008
- Market Analysis), the auction saw a cooling down but not a
collapse of the Russian market. Not only fewer bid fights but
also a lower percentage sold (55%) are indicators of this. The
considerably higher percentage sold of the high-end pieces
reflects a search for quality and rarity by Russian collectors.

Spectacularly above its start
price was this share in the
South-Russian Company for
Trade in Cattle and Dairy
Produce which sold for
€3 >900

_ .

jm ***** gj Mm« ^

VCTO PYBJ1EH CENT ROUBLES

This 1894 share in a
metallurgical company from
St Petersburg is unusually
pictorial for Russian
scripophily. While not
especially rare, it still fetched
€675 (up from €600 start)

HIWEPA

Basel, March 14

A nice basket of discoveries was presented by Thierry Stauble for his 25th Jubilee
event and, thanks to the low-reserve policy, 100% of the 285 lots were sold. The
total came to CHF128,635 (€83,400/£76,800/$108,800).

The highlight was a Swiss share of Fr400 dated 1830, the Schauspielhaus in Basel
no 1! It sold for CHF10,000 (€6,500), the top price of the day. One of loveliest Swiss
shares is the Aktienbrauerei Thun dated 1897, sold for CHF8,000 (€5,200). And
there were more nice Swiss stocks! The casino-spa at Baden, Kurhaus-Gesellschaft,
for example, a Fr200-share dated 1874, hammered at CHF6,000 (€3,900).

But the fireworks were not finished yet! The beautiful Centennial International
Exhibition share, Philadelphia 1876, sold for CHF1,300 ($1,100) and a Staten
Island Rail Road share of 1864 signed by William Henry Vanderbilt went for
CHF1,500 ($1,270). Amongst Germans, a 200-Thaler share of Vereinigte Konigs-
und Laurahiitte Actien-Gesellschaft, Berlin 1871, sold for CHF4,500 (€3,000). A
top French piece was a rarely seen share of the Sucrerie de Meinau, Strasbourg,
dated 1839. The founder of this sugar company was Charles-Louis Schulmeister, a
spy for Napoleon Bonaparte during the French occupation of parts of Germany and
Austria, well rewarded by the Emperor but later an unsuccessful businessman. This
interesting story helped the share to reach CHF4,400 (€2,850). Last but not least, the
highly decorative Ancienne Manufacture Royale Draps Fins d’Abbeville, Paris
1855, sold for CHF4,400 (€2,850).

Two mailbid auctions of lower-priced material, closing December 15 and March 16,
realised CHF45,878 (€29,000/£27,000/$39,000) with all except 8 of the 770 lots sold
at an average price of €38. The top price was reached by cable car from Switzerland,
a Rheineck-Walzenhausen bearer stock 1897, sold for CHF500. A special piece was
a Trans-Antarctic Expedition 5-shilling certificate from 1956. This expedition was

organized by Sir Edmund Hillary (first to reach the
summit of Mount Everest) and with his facsimile
signature the certificate sold for CHF330 (£185).

This French sugar company was
founded by one of Napoleon’s
spies. The 1839 share sold for
CHF4,400 (€2>850)

One of many highlights was this 1838 half-share, in
French and German, of a coal mine, the Steinkohlen
Bergwerke von Offenburg (Duchy of Baden). Sold for
CHF7,700 (€5,000), it went back to Germany

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

BOONE

Antwerp, March 20-21

B oone’s 42nd auction had two catalogues, both English-only as usual for this firm. One of them was a ‘Best of the Best’ catalogue of 500 worldwide
pieces specially selected for rarity or design and priced from €500 to €30,000. The other was a ‘normal’ catalogue except that the countries were
sequenced in reverse alpha order - simply to stir the readers’ brain cells.

The auction’s total sales set a world record for a retail scripophily auction when measured in today’s weak dollars ($883,000) or pounds (£605,000), and
at €651,000 is in euros second only to the January 2001 Smythe sale when the dollar was strong and the euro weak. (The Reichsbank Hoard auctions
exceeded these results but sold primarily into the wholesale market.) The total of the hammer prices was 15% above the total of their start prices.

A large Ottoman collection was catalogued in 427 lots but these were also offered as a single lot and sold as such to a German collector/dealer for €77,000,
€2,000 above the start price. Interestingly the total of the 427 individual start prices was less than €77,000. Similarly a collection of 435 Russian bank
pieces was catalogued into 53 lots but in the event sold as a single lot for €19,000, €1,500 above start price.

After adjusting for these collections, the number of lots put to the hammer was 1,977 and 55% were sold.

BRITISH PRICE RECORD

The most ever bid for a British share certificate (in pounds though not in other currencies) was
achieved by an 1830 share of the Stockton & Darlington Railway at its start price of €30,000 (£27,880),
sold to Wertpapierwelt, the scripophily museum in Switzerland. However, two unissueds of the same
railway - one a previously unseen half-share - found no buyers at €8,000/€9,000. Likewise none of the
five other early British railway shares was sold, including a Liverpool & Manchester Railway share in
excellent condition and of the earliest possible date, 1826, offered at €19,000. Abridge too far for British
collectors struggling against the collapse of the pound.

With Leen Boone on his right and a state
supervisor on his left, multi-lingual auctioneer
Guy Bertrand takes a winning bid from »

Our next auctions:

13th auction:

r»w» m fcjniTf Hui _ Jy

May 15th to 17th, 2009,

f ii

Wurzburg (Germany)

WE SELL A WIDE RANGE OF INTERESTING

14th auction:

OLD SHARES, BONDS & MAPS

Nov. 14th to 15th, 2009,
Wiesbaden (Germany)

SEND FOR OUR FREE CATALOGUE

For consignments and

GKR BONDS LIMITED

catalogue requests please contact:

PO Box 1, Kelvedon
Colchester C05 9SH

HWPH AG

Matthias Schmitt

Tel: 01376 571711 (24hrs)

Teh: +49-8106-24 61 S6

Fax: 01376 570125 (24hrs)

E-Mail; auktion@hwph,de

Email: gkr4@hotmail.com

Web: www.hwph.de

www.gkrbonds.com

IBSS AUCTIONS

The Society holds auctions as a service
to members wishing to buy or sell.

10% commission payable by seller
(negotiable on high-value lots).

No charge for unsolds.

5% buyers’ premium.

No VAT. Postage at cost.

No charge for payment by credit card
(Visa, MasterCard).

Mail and email bids are encouraged.
Catalogues sent to all members worldwide.

We are pleased to help with the disposal
of single pieces and complete collections.

Please contact the auctioneer before
posting material.

Auctioneer - Bruce Castlo
auctions @ scripophily.org

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

RUSSIAN PRICE RECORD

A record auction price for a Russian share, $16,000, was paid for an
1839 founder’s share of the Warsaw-Vienna Railway. An 1853 share in
the earliest railway inside Russia itself, the Zarsko-Selo, attracted no bids
at its start price of €22,000. Despite this disappointment, Russians were
the best performers. The total of the hammer prices for the Russian lots
sold was 26% above the total of their start prices. A Wladikawkas
Railway 500-rouble 1912 made €2,500 from a start of €1,200, a
Konstancya AG sugar factory share 1884 sold for €1,200 (start €950).
Perhaps the auctioneer’s biggest surprise came when an 1899 share of the
Manufacture des Draps de Narva rose to €3,200 from a €600 start.
An attractive 1909 share of the Belgian company Novorossia SA sold for

€2,800 (start €2,400). City
bonds also sold well, for
example, City of Saratoff
1910 187.50-rouble sold for
€4,200 (start €3,000) and
City of Sebastopol 1910
187.50-rouble for €2,800
(start €2,000).

» bidder #45, Joan Sardanyons from Spain

Russia was the largest
section, 319 lots, and also
shared with Poland the
highest percentage sold at 66%. Of the other large sections, Italy, France,
Spain and Portugal sold over 60%, and the rest were between 33% and
42%. A section of 39 Cubans included 32 banks that were offered both
separately and as a collection and failed to sell in either guise, only one
of the bank pieces eventually being sold, an 1857 share of the Banco
Espanol de la Habana, for €300.

The US too did badly, with just 38% sold. Only the earliest banks and
railroads sold at all well, with an 1822 Farmers Bank of the State of
Delaware selling for its €500 start ($680), an 1837 Bank of the United
States also selling at its start (€700, $950), an 1834 Philadelphia
Germantown & Norristown Rail Road share going for €850 ($1,150,
start €600) and a Lockport & Niagara Falls Rail-Road bond for €600
start ($810). A section of 16 railroad bonds priced from €500 to €2,500
totally failed.

Spanish 18th century companies did quite well with the Guadalcanal,
Extremadura, Sevilla and two Maritima companies selling in the range
€2,900 to €6,500, some above their start prices, but the generally less
expensive Caracas, Zaragoza, San Carlos and Hoppensak were left unsold.

Despite the failures mentioned, the sale broke records. 12 pieces sold for
more than €5,000, split more or less equally between France, Russia and
Spain. A further 95 sold between €1,000 and €5,000,30 of them Russian.
These heavyweights alone would have been enough to make this auction
the biggest this year so far.

til

li .tii

ffi

1 ■ f

m 1

pH M I* KI KT 41K N , \ K H 'I'll KAT H K,

Fine share in Philadelphia’s New
Theatre, undated but believed to be
from 1791, the earliest known
American vignetted share and the
earliest known American theatre
share, issued to and signed as
president by Clement Biddle. Sold
for its starting €5,500 ($7,460)

Rare and very large - a 5,000-
rouble founders share in the Polish
Rosenblatta cotton-mill company,
1893. Only 200 were issued. Sold
for its starting €6,000

A share in the Fred Brdlik Meat Packing
Co, London 1914. Exceptionally colourful
for a British piece. The reverse carries the
same certificate but in Czech. The piece has
dividend coupons and tax stamps of both
Britain and Austria-Hungary. Sold for €650
(£604, start €500)

Again rare and of very large format
- a 1922 share in the first urban
bus network in Barcelona - sold

for €1,800

Another very unusual design, this
time for a Belgian barge-towing
company, L Masy et Cie, founded
1895. Only two of these shares are
known to the auctioneer. Sold at
start €800

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

PUGET SOUND & ALASKA STEAMSHIP CO
WA, 189Q T s. Operating from 1889-1904 as a subsidiary
of the Northern Pacific RR> steamships ran from
Tacoma servicing IViget Sound and Alaska. Issued to
and Signed by J. D, Rockefeller $6,000 or Issued to
Others $350 or Unissued in Brown or Green $100

GEORGE, H.

LaBARRE

GALLERIES

The World’s Largest Inventory' of Coll edible
Stocks and Bonds. Over G Million Pieces-
RO. Box 746, Hollis, NH 03049
www.glabarre.com collect@glabaiTe.com

800 717-9529 or 603 882-2411

—

Experience the excitement
and energy of Wall Street
one block from the
New York Stock Exchange.

MUSEUM

OF AMERICAN

FINANCE

IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

48 Wall Street, New York City

financialhistory.org

£5>cnpopl)ilj>.coin

The World's largest
Stock and Bond Website
with over 15,000 Selections

Owned and operated
by Bob.com'"

S clip cpfiiiif.com

The Analog company in a Digital World

www.scripophily.com

Scripophily.com

P.O. Box 223795
Chantilly, Virginia
20153

Phone 703-787-3552
1-888-STOCKS6
Fax 703-995-4422
Email:

service@scripophily.com

Just ask for
Bob Kerstein

See our 2009
Stock Calendar
We are now taking
orders for 2010

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

EVENTS CALENDAR

50th Auction

on It, 12 and 13 September 2009
Contributions are being accepted effective immediately.

Special anniversary conditions being offered to contributors:

items up to 150 € 18 % commission

items up to 500 €
items up to 1.500 €
items up to 2.500 €
items over 2.500 €

15 % commission
10 % commission
5 % commission

being auctioned off with no charge

Friday

Saturday

Tentative Agenda

Coliectioners' get-together with spontaneous auctioning;
bring along your collectibles and we will auction off up to
5 of your items at no charge.

Auction

Most of the event organisers can be contacted via
their details in the Membership Directory 2008
and/or in their ads in this issue. It is advisable to
check dates with the organisers before attending as
dates are sometimes changed at short notice.

April

21 IBSS AGM, London

22-23 * Spink Auction, NY

(Numismatic Collector’s Series)

25- 26 FHW Auction & Bourse, Frankfurt

May

2 * Daugherty Auction, Holiday Inn,

Boxborough, Mass www.hjwdonline.com

8 IBSS Mailbid Auction

9 Tschope Auction, Diisseldorf

15-17 HWPH Auction, Wurzburg
25 Gutowski Mailbid Auction

28 Spink Auction, London

June

6-7 Busso Peus, Reichsbank Auction, Berlin

www.reichsbankschatz .de
6-7 * London Coins, Bracknell

26- 28 * Memphis Show and Spink Smythe

Auction, Memphis, Tennessee
27 FHW Auction, Munich

July

25 AG fur Historische Wertpapiere, AGM

incl Auction & Bourse, Wolfenbuttel

Saturday evening Joint dinner - an opportunity to enjoy a few local dishes.

A local distillery will demonstrate its wares. All you can
eat for € 25,00

Sunday Guided tour of historical Gelnhausen; take part and look

back on 800 years of history

August

29 HSK Auction & Bourse, Hamburg

September

5-6 * London Coins, Bracknell

11-13 Raab/Kurle Verlag Auction & B ourse,
Gelnhausen

24 Spink Auction, London

Bazaar; reserve one or more of our big tables (27" x 63'0
for € 50,00 ea. incl. snack and soda

Translation services for English and French available on the premises all three days.

Free shuttle service from the Frankfurt/Main airport and train station.

Bring your family and enjoy our lovely town and beautiful countryside.

Hotel rooms are available starting at under € 100.00.

October

3-4

FHW Auction & Bourse, Frankfurt

10-11

Boone Auction & Bourse, Antwerp

20 *

Galileo/ Gilbert Lamblaut Auction, Paris

25 *

Daugherty Auction, Lexington, Mass
www.hj wdonline .com

November

Gutowski Mailbid Auction

Tschope Auction, Diisseldorf

14-15

HWPH Auction, Wiesbaden

FHW Auction & Bourse, Berlin

December

5-6 *

London Coins, Bracknell

For further information please contact us at: wernerkuerle@vedagshaus-kuerle.de

* Scripophily with paper money,
coins or other collectables

SCRIPOPHILY

2009/1

Stocks & Bonds at our intern

WWW.

M A

Benecke

Rehse

Six major auctions every year in Germany:
www.fhw-online.com & www.hsk-auction.com

Scripophily Auctions
since 1977

We are always accepting consignments for future
auctions, as well as collections or individual items.

Please contact: Michael Weingarten, michael.weingarten@historische-wertpapiere.de

Freunde Historischer Wertpapiere
Auktionsgesellschaft

Hanseatisches Sammlerkontor fur
Historische Wertpapiere

Salzbergstrasse 2, 38302 Wolfenbuttel, Germany
Phone: +49 - (0) 5331 - 975533, Fax: +49 - (0) 5331 - 975555

LONDON COINS

Regular high-volume auctions of quality
numismatic items by experienced auctioneers

ACHIEVING OUTSTANDING PRICES AT AUCTION

8ai:mm» r<»* • i ii i; i:.. > * in \

ifflt -***

e 1!! e

SljH3AEMl> ruiUilA HHKOJiAEBA ij

mmmm

81HFTMPE TbICflSH CBUbCOTl MlTb IWTb WM

. 3

LOAN OF THE CITY OF NIKOLAEF i

BOND

iip Hum nmu&AHii hjirmu ami> ran five whibles

•I

i *%

St:

uiin hi' rm t'm in -iM'i.U’c

Russia, City of Nikolaef 1912 Loan,
second series, bond for £500

Realised Price - £2300

»tratfov&upou Abott Canal fUtn&attort

I HEREBY CERTIFY tin jC*. > *

/ k c ..

. iii> Pi^tkxu o* ihc Snra No. ✓ </ ) k in lU I ■ulm*w««4 »l» ul N . .*«*., «.d

>li« BncUefibcCcmiiiKivofPnijiHclou. Oiled ihl« ,Js _/ y ”j ,i.v ,.f ,|,j

tNTERED

Hpr

•iri ,J thi Occail

< - iu»t dark to tke Cvajmav.

Great Britain, Stratford-upon-Avon Canal Navigation

Realised Price - £320

Do you have any bonds, shares, coins,
banknotes or medals you want to sell?

01474 871464
info@londoncoins.co.uk

• \ * rW , Ti 11 f • m. • -M m * Ki wS KtiSHHi

AUCTION DATES

6th & 7th June 2009
5th & 6th September 2009
5th & 6th December 2009

4-6 Upper Street South, New Ash Green, Kent, DA3 8JJ
Tel: 01474 871464 Website: www.londoncoins.co.uk

London Coins Bonds and Shares
Consultant is Andrew Litherland

Published by the International Bond & Share Society. Designed and printed by The Printed Word Ltd. Telephone +44 (0)1403 265608

AUKTIONSHAUS TSCHOPE

since 1978

30 years tradition and experience in
Fine Autographs and International Shares

Upcoming Auction: May 9th, 2009 . DUsseldorf. Germany

Bruchweg 8.41564 Kaarst. Germany
phone +49 (0)2131 602756 . fax +49 (0)2131 667949
email info@tschoepe.de . internet www.tschoepe.de

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Texts

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Scripophily (April 2009)"

See other formats